The Perfect Home
by rhiannacooper
Summary: Bella and her two best friends thought they found the perfect place to live. But when strange things start to happen, they would have to seek help in the form of three young men who are more related to the events than they know off. B/E, R/EM, A/J
1. Beginnings

Chapter 1

"Wake up, wake up! We´re gonna be late!"

I open my eyes to see my best friend hovering over me, dress and ready for the day.

"I´m up Alice! Just give 20 minutes and I´ll be ready, we still have three hours before the meeting, I said while rubbing my eyes and walking to the bathroom."

"I´m just too excited! I´ve been up since 6 am working on my outfit and on smart topics for a grown up conversation. I really, really want to impress this woman, so she gives us the deal. Should we tell her about our GPA´s, yours is better that mine, of course, but still 3.5 is pretty good considering. May be we should have told some teachers to write us recommendation letter, so she can see how responsible we are! Or maybe…. "

I could still listen her babbling at light speed but that´s Alice for you. I met Alice Brandon when I was 15, on the first day of high school. I was the new girl in town and you know what they say in Mexico, _"Pueblo chico, infierno grande" (_ Small town, big hell). But the time I arrived to school everyone already knew who I was and the reasons for my moving there. I had been expelled from my private all girl catholic school unfairly, for defending a girl who supposedly was my best friend since we were 8, only for her to stab me in the back and sleep with my boyfriend.

After that, my mom thought we needed a fresh start, somewhere new, away from Pennsylvania. Lucky for us, my dad Charlie, whose been in the military since he graduate college, was send to a new base, somewhere in Washington, and we move to rainy Forks, WA. After, 15 years of living in a big city, moving to a small town was a huge change for me, but I had Alice who helped me with the transition.

We heard a loud horn coming from downstairs. "That must be Rose! Bella hurry up! I don´t wanna be late!"

-"I´m almost done" I said while walking to my closet. "I don´t understand how you can be wearing a suit with this weather! It´s almost 89°F degrees out there! "

"Bellaaa! This is the most important meeting of our lives! Of course I´m wearing a suit"

"Alice for god´s sake, it´s 8 AM in the morning, could you keep it down before your weird neighbors start complaining. " Rosalie said while walking into our small studio, "HI BELLA! Are you almost ready? Maybe we could stop by IHOP for some pancakes before we hit the road?"

"No one is stopping anywhere! We have to be there 11 AM sharp. If we are not on time, she´s gonna think we are some kind of irresponsible party girl who party all night long and that´s why we could be on time"

"Alice could you please stop being so overdramatic. It´s not as if it were an interview with you idol, Anna Wintour. It´s just a real estate agent, showing us some places for us to moving in together. She doesn´t need a resume or for you to were 5 inch heels."

"My dear darling Rose, the day I have an interview with Anna Wintour, I´ll start getting ready 10 hours before it! Wait… how do you know the real estate lady doesn´t need my resume?"

Rose just rolled her eyes at her as she start walking to the kitchen for some much needed coffee. We met Rosalie, freshmen year of college. She was a told 5´8 blue eyed blonde with a killer body and confident attitude. Pretty much every girl wanted to be her friend and every boy wanted to date her. But growing up in Hollywood taught Rose how to choose her friends, that how she asked us if she could share our table. Ever since then, it´s has been the three of us.

We graduated three years ago, and while Rose move in with her boyfriend Royce, Alice and I choose a small two bedroom apartment. Six months ago, two more live in boyfriends and some nasty neighbors; we decided it was time to start looking for a new place to live, this time the three of us. So we start contacting many real estate agents, but the places they show us were not worth the money they asked. You would think that with this economy you could find some nice places at reasonable prices, but that was far away from reality.

"Where is this place again?" I was walking into the kitchen to see Rose smiling while sipping her cup of coffee and Alice fixing her hair for the tenth time in the last 5 minutes using a spoon as her mirror.

"Somewhere close to Hollywood Hills, I think. I can´t believe it´s been six months and we still can´t find anywhere to live." Rosalie said while looking at her phone. "I think we should wait till 9:30 for the traffic jam to die a little bit, it´s like an hour from Huntington Beach to downtown LA anyway, so we should…"

"ARE YOU WEARING THAT! Alice almost shout as soon as she saw me "Bella you can´t go wearing jeans and a t shirt, please at least wear something nicer or some makeup"

"Alice I dress up and wear make-up five days a week for work. The last thing I want to do on a Sunday is wear high heels and blush. Besides, what´s wrong with what I´m wearing, I called it smart casual" I was wearing a pair of blue skinny jeans, a simple white t shirt and flats for god´s sake. "Alice, for the last time, you really need to relax, we go, we see if we like we buy/rent if not we keep looking, that´s how it works."

"Bella´s right Al and you better stop winning. Mom says that winning too much makes your skin wrinkle faster." Rose comments jokingly while Alice starts doing some weird movement with her face.

It was no secret to anyone who knew us that Mrs. Hale LOVED Alice. She liked me and Rose but she was seriously in love with Alice. Alice mom died of cancer when she was really young and she was raised by her father and her two older sisters. She was like a little princess for her dad, but she always missed not having a mom while growing up. Rosalie on the other hand grew up with her older brother in a successful Hollywood marriage. After 30 years, actor turned director/producer Colin Hale was still madly in love with Anna Lewis, supermodel turned actress. Differently from what you´ll expect, Rose was not interest in fashion, designers or girly stuff. Rose love sports and cars, just like her dad. As soon as, Rose mom find out about Alice´s mother she start pampering her with trips to the spa and first row fashion shows, which Rose was not interested in attending.

We catch up a little bit about this week´s work. Rosalie, true to herself found a way to work in both of her passions, sports journalist by day, and fancy car dealer by night. She knew many rich athletes who were interested in acquiring the most extravagant and unique cars, and Rose knew almost every mechanic engineer in the country. Alice in the other hand, just like expected, found a job doing what she likes the most, telling people what to wear. She is not a stylist quite yet, but she works with one of the best in town and even helped picked Julia Roberts Oscar dress.

-"Okay girls is 9:40, I think we should go. Who´s driving?" Rosalie asked while the wrinkles in her black sun dress.

-"I will, I don´t think Alice can drive with those traps she calls shoes. Could you please be shoot gun Rose? Last time Alice was shoot gun, we drive around the same block for half an hour before finding the house."

-"It´s not my fault I have blackouts, besides I thought I saw Orlando Bloom walking down the street. "

When we were exiting our building we could see our creepy neighbor spying on us from his window. "See! That´s why we need to move ASAP! So we can get far away from people like him and all those horny college guys go live in block C"

-"Hey don´t blame me. You were the one obsessed enough with The OC who wanted to leave in Newport Beach and this was as close as we got there." I said while driving into the I-605.

* * *

"Okay this is the master bedroom. As you can see, plenty of room, big walking-in closet and a nice and spacious bath, perfect for long bubble baths." Renata, our newest real estate, explained to us while showing us around.

Truth to be told, the apartment was okay it was a three bedrooms, 2 ½ bathrooms. Small living area and adequate kitchen. Enough for three young girls making it in crazy LA. The location was nice too, it was a half an hour drive to downtown where we work mostly, and close to Beverly Hills, well as close as you can get, where most of Alice´s clients lived. I tuned to look at Alice smiling like the Jocker and eating up everything Renata said, while Rose had a stern expression.

-"Before you keep talking about amenities and such, I think it´s best if you tells us first what´s the asking price?" Rose said going straight to the point, as always.

-"Well, you see Miss Hale, the apartment is almost new, it has a great location and your sister seems to love it, so does the price really matters at all, besides it´s not as if you could not afford it…" she stop when Rosalie give her a death look, fix herself and start again, "Well, the owners want to rent it actually and really fast, so they are not asking that much, only nine thousand a month plus utilities"

-"HAVE YOU LOST YOUR…" Rose started but I interrupt before she could say anything else, "We´ll think about it, but I don´t think this works for us. We were looking into something a little bit quieter and preferably a house, not an apartment. Besides the two extra rooms are way too small and it wouldn´t be fair for the other two. We´ll just keep looking, I guess"

-"Oh, that´s fine... I have some other houses as well. I have a file with a few pictures may be you could look through them and see if you find something you like" She turned to the living room and sit in the large sofa on display opening her briefcase and taking out a big white folder.

After a few minutes of looking through her choices we were getting a little cranky when Alice said "What about this one? It looks pretty" while a slim black folder.

Renata look at the folder with wide eyes for a splint second while Rose move close to Alice to look at the folder she was holding. "You are right Al, this place looks really nice. Could we make an appointment to look at it? Looked Bell, it says here that the house is near Calabasas. Five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms.."

After a minute of silence, Renata finally respond Rosalie´s question "Well, mmm, actually that house does not belong to me per say. It´s from the company and any agent can offer it. I´ll have to call my boss and asked when we ca make an appointment. Just give me one sec." she said while grabbing her phone and walking out of the apartment

-"That was a little weird don´t you think?" Rosalie asked, "but anyways, Bell you have to see this. This place actually looks homey I wonder what´s the rent… "

-"May be on the last page?" I kept listening to them talking about the place while looking through the window at Renata who was on the phone with someone. She seems stressed and even a little… scared?

-"OH MY GOD! It says here rent if $4,500/month. Is that even possible?" That comment make me turned and look at my two friends.

-"WHAT?! Are you sure? $4,500 a month? In LA?"

-"Well, San Fernando Valley but still! That´s way too cheap for a place like this. May be the house is really small and just looks big in the pictures. What´s the area? ... 2,691 square foot."

-"There must a catch!"

-"Come on B, don´t be like that. Why can´t you just be positive and think the universe is sending us a nice and affordable place to live, which is close to the Kardashians, maybe I´ll meet one of them and start working with them DASH! And the…"

-"Okay girls, I talked with mi colleague and he will meet us after lunch at the house. I´ll give you the address so you can meet us there. Does 4:30 work for you?"

-"That is fine with us.

-"Okay then, let me show you, your way out. "She said opening the front door "I´ll see you at the house at 4:30 then. Please if you change your mind let me know so we don´t… drive up there for nothing" she said smiling while we enter our car and start driving away.

* * *

"Welcome to IN N OUT, what can I get you?"

"We´ll have three double cheese burgers, fries and three vanilla milkshakes, please" Rosalie said while give her AMEX to the young teenager at the counter. "I can´t believe we finally find something worth looking at and at a reasonable price"

"I know right! I don´t forget the fact that it is a house and not a small annoying apartment. It even has a pool and everything. Bella are you alright? You´ve been really quite since we left that awful apartment in Hollywood Hills. What´s the matter?"

"It´s nothing Ali. I just have a bad feeling about this and I don´t know why. It seems too good to be truth and I think there must be a catch or something"

"Like my dear mother likes to say, "Good things, happen to smart and beautiful people". Embrace it Bell, it seems like we found a place to live. The viewing is just a formality. "

After finishing our meal, we drive around LA for a while to kill some time until our appointment.

At exactly 4:30 PM we drove into Ensenada Drive. Big and beautiful houses line up to both sides of the road. "This neighborhood looks really nice. What´s the address again?"

"3966 Ensenada Drive." I answer while the GPS alert us that we had arrived at our destination. I could see Renata and some early forties man talking quietly at the front lawn of the house. Just like the pictures, the house was really big and beautiful. A two story red brick house, with large windows and vast green front lawn.

As soon as she saw us, Renata stopped talking with her partner and walk to greet us. She introduced us to her colleague, Max Marin. Apparently he has been in charge of the house for quite some time and does it pretty well. We start the tour, and the more the girls saw the more they like it. It had open space, a big kitchen and four decent size bedrooms, plus a big master bedroom. The final touch was the outside yard, a medium pool and Jacuzzi laid alongside of a BBQ set.

"The pool was built in the early forties but was renovated 10 years ago when the new owner built the Jacuzzi. The previous owners built the BBQ and change the plumbing of both, so you shouldn´t had any problems with it. So, what do you think?"

Before Alice or Rose could say anything I interjected, "Is the rent really $4,500 a month?"

"Plus utilities of course, but water is included in the rent"

"WE TAKE IT" Rose and Alice scream at the same time and start jumping up and down.

"Okay in that case we can start with the pap…"

"What´s the catch?" I asked. "What do you mean…" Max started

"There must be something you are not telling us. No way would a place like this, in this neighborhood rent for so low. So again, what´s the catch?"

Max and Renata exchange a look before he turned to look at me. "Okay, if you must know. The previous owners left rather abruptly because they claim that the house is haunted. The mother had an accident, she said she fell but everyone believes the husband was beating her. What is true is that the house has a history of weird occurrences but no one has die in here, well besides the original owner, but he died of decease. True to be told, most of that people just wanted either money or attention, this is Los Angeles after all. Ok so should we start with the paper work or has that story change your minds"

"Could you give us a minute please" they nodded and retrieve to their car. "Bella, come on, this place is amazing and is below what we hope to pay. You can´t let a silly ghost story scare us away."

"Rose is right. I mean, you have to admit it´s a bit freaky but they were probably lying, you heard him, abusive husband. They probably made it up, so he wouldn't have to go to jail. Come on, said yes"

I looked at both of them for a moment and then turned to look at the house. It was true it was pretty, and to be honest perfect for us. I still had a bad feeling but I guess we could try after all is just a rental and if it doesn´t work, we could always move somewhere else.

"So, have you reached a decision?" Max asked us with some documents in his hands with Renata smiling awkwardly behind him.

"Where do we sign?" I asked while Rose and Alice start jumping in happiness.

* * *

_AN:

Okay this is my first attempt at writing a fanfic. It probably has a lot of grammatical mistakes but I don´t have a beta.

It will mostly be Bella POV with some of the grils and the boys too. This fic is mostly mistery. I hope you like it.


	2. Moving In

Chapter 2

"You probably need an emergency kit; I heard California has a lot of wild fires, especially at this time of the year." my mom babble while I was finishing closing the last box of my precious books.

It was a warm June, Friday night. I had just finished packing all my belongings and was looking for a long warm bubble bath before going to bed. Tomorrow was moving day for me and Alice, so I needed all the sleep I could get. Unlike me, Alice decided to say goodbye to our former home partying away with the annoying college kids from down the road, and went to a sorority party close to Anaheim.

"I know mom, and not worry I´ll buy an extinguisher tomorrow morning. Have you heard from dad? I tried calling him yesterday but I couldn´t reach him" I said sadly. Growing up as an army brat I was used to being alone with mom most of the time, especially in the early years of 2000 when dad was send to Afghanistan. Even though, we only saw him a couple weeks a year, those were the best weeks of them all. Dad was a loving father and husband, whose only priority was me and my mom. They were high school sweethearts and to this day, they were still madly in love of each other.

"Yes sweetie, I skyped with him earlier. He is okay, enjoying London of course, you know how much he enjoys rainy weather. He said he wanted to be here to help you move but still has some matters to attend in the embassy. He should be back in mid-July, though and then we are going on a cruise for our 30th wedding anniversary" she commented happily.

"That´s great momma. I have off next week; you know school is out till September and I don´t need to be at the office, you could come stay with me and help me decorate. I know how much you like it" I offered.

Ever since I move out to go to school in California, and with that away with army, mom started feeling really lonely. She started volunteering in shelters and orphanages, taking some classes, joining reading, gardening and baking clubs. She also has some sort of sisterhood, with other army wives from around Seattle. They meet once a week and babble about their day a day.

"I would love that sweetie, but I have a state inspection next week and I want the house to be flawless" oh did I forget to mention that my mom´s newest hobby was to be a foster mother. She was a loving mother and great member of the community, plus my dad being a lieutenant at the army help a lot. She has had two kids staying with her and both were really nice kids with a difficult attitude because of the hard life they had to live. Even now, they sometimes visit her over the summer.

"That´s okay mom. I know how important this is to you. We have all summer to see each other anyway. Maybe you and dad can come sometime while he´s still in town. " I heard the front door open and someone coming into the apartment, "Mom I have to go, I think Alice is home and I have to make sure she pack everything. I´ll called you tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay baby girl, sweet dreams. I love you!"

"I love you too"

I left my phone on my dresser and went to the living room to find Rosalie sitting there in her pajamas. She had some free time over the week, so she had been taking her belongings to the new house. "Hey girlie! I thought you would spend the night at the new place?"

"I was but I got lonely and couldn´t sleep, besides I think we should spend the first night together. Is it okay if I stay the night with you guys?" she said awkwardly.

"Of course Rose! You don´t even have to asked. Should we order some pizza?"

"I´m in, also you might want to bring to glasses. I stop by my parents and steal this" she said holding an expensive looking red wine. "Where is Al?"

"At a fraternity party" she looked at me with wide eyes " I know ,I don´t even want to talk about that. So how are your parents?" I said while serving the wine and logging into Papa John's web site.

"They are okay. Dad´s is really busy with pre-production of his new movie, but they start shooting in a month in France. He is taking mom with him, once that´s done they´ll go on a trip around Europe together" she said sadly

"What´s wrong Rose"

"It´s just that, sometimes looking at our parents, even Alice´s dad, they all have fairy tales romances and happy endings, and speaking for me all I can find is wanna be actors who date me because they want me to introduce them to my dad. We are 25 Bella; at this point we should at least had one serious relationship. Even my brother has a boyfriend/husband; did I mention they are adopting a kid? So yeah, even though I´m happy with my career, I sometimes feel a little lonely." Her confession came as a surprise to me. Rosalie was always the most confident one the one, but I guess even confident people sometimes feel a little insecure.

"I know what you mean Rose, but don´t rush it. You´ll see, one day you are going to meet a good man, who is going to love you for you and not because of your family. Oh that´s the doorbell. Pizza must be here! Why don´t you pick a movie in Netflix, anything you want!"

"Really? Anything? Even Rush?"

Of course she will want to watch Rush. That movie combines her three loves: cars, sports and Chris Hemsworth. "Yes Rose, even Rush"

* * *

It was noon when we arrived at the house with the U-Haul truck. Just like we predicted Alice was hungover and cranky, I kept screaming at the men we hired to help us, to be careful with her boxes.

"Al, if they are fragile, why don´t you carry them inside. Just let them carry the heavy stuff"

"I will do it myself but…" she lowers her voice and whispers to us "I´m a little hungover and I´m afraid I´ll drop something or even worse trip down the stairs"

"That will be Bella"

"Hey! I´m not that bad!" I said while entering the house with a box full of clothes. It was true, I was a little clumsy but it was not such a big deal.

I start going down the stairs when I heard small giggles coming from the back garden. I look through the stairs window and saw a small kid hiding behind a tree. I left the box at the top of the stairs and run downstairs to the back yard.

"Hey kid! You shouldn´t be here! Where are your parents?" I said while walking across the lawn directly to the tree. Even though he was hiding behind I could still see his shadow a bit of head.

"Bella? Who are you talking to?" I turned to see Rose walking out of the house.

"This neighbor kid"

"What kid?" I turned and the kid was gone. Maybe I imagine him, after all Rose decide to watch The Conjuring after Rush. But I was almost sure I saw home. Maybe he run back home.

"Oh, I thought I saw a kid hiding behind the tree, but I think he is gone now"

"Maybe your mind is playing tricks with you, after what Max said is understandable." She said laughing while I join in. That´s when we heard a loud noise and commotion coming from the inside. She rushed in only to find Alice lying at the bottom of the stairs grabbing her ankle.

"Ali, what happen?" I asked while bending down to look at her swelling ankle.

"I think she trip down the stairs miss" one of the guys told us.

"No, I did not trip! Someone push me!

* * *

AN:

Thanks for the review MissRainbow. I do plan to finish this story and I am going to try to update very often. I know what you said about the grammar mistakes, but I´m not good with that and I don´t have a Beta. I f someone knows one or knows how to get one,please let me know! I´ll like to make the story easy to read and I know a lot of mistakes can be annoying while reading.

Next chapter we will see one of the boys.


	3. First Night

Chapter 3

"I can´t believe you made us brought you all the way to UCLA!" Rose said frustrated.

"I know right! But Cedars-Sinai was too far away and I couldn´t stand the pain! Besides UCLA is the second best hospital in Los Angeles anyway."

"No you idiot! I meant all the way to Santa Monica when we could have gone to West Hills Hospital 15 minutes away instead of spending an hour on traffic. Besides I had to call my mother to stay at the house while we brought you here. Oh! And FYI! Cedars-Sinai is the same distant from the house but the other way!"

"How was I supposed to know?! I studied Fashion and Merchandising, not Geography!"

"It´s called common sense Al. You´ve lived in LA for almost three years! These are the kind of things you should know by now!"

"Could both of you just shut up, please. We are in a hospital; you are supposed to be quiet because there is sick people around" I said boringly but already knew I was going to be ignored by both of them. When these two are arguing, there´s no stopping them. Lucky for me and all the people around, a nurse walk past the curtain and smiled at Alice, "Okay Miss, what seems to be the problem with you?"

"Someone pushed me down the stairs!" the nurse, who´s nametag read Amanda frown her lips and eyebrows before answering "Well, in that case we should probably contact security to file a report of the accident and have the police come to speak with you and take your statement. Can you tell us who pushed you, Miss? Are there any witnesses?"

"Nobody pushed her, she just tripped and fall. No mind her, she´s a little tired because we are in the middle of a move. No need for police or anything. We will just like to see a doctor who can check her ankle and see if it´s okay." Rosalie told Nurse Amanda while giving Alice a look that said STOP.

"Okay if you are sure Miss Brandon, the doctor will be with you in minute but it´s probably just a sprain. You´ll be like new in a few days." She said smiling before leaving us alone.

"Are you crazy or what? You can´t tell people that kind of things, especially doctors. They always called the police."

"I´m not lying Rose, I felt someone behind me. That´s why I turned around and then felt as I was being poke."

"Ali, Rose is right. You´re tired because of lack of sleep. Probably you just imagine it. Besides you heard the moving guys, they only saw you falling down the stairs by yourself. No one was there."

"Well, I guess you guys might be right then."

"Miss Brandon?" a young doctor said as he pushed the curtain open "I´m Dr. McCarty and I´ll be tending you today. So, what can I do for you?"

"I fall down the stairs and my ankle hurts a lot"

"Okay let´s give it a look. May I?" he said pointing at her ankle while Alice nod her head in approval, "Well, it looks like a sprain but to be sure I´m going to order some X-rays. Do you feel pain anywhere else?"

"No, just the ankle"

"Okay, in that case I´ll go asked the nurse to take you to x-rays, be right back" he said giving us a smile.

Nurse Amanda took Alice to x-ray in a wheelchair, while Rose and I wait standing next to the gurney.

Dr. McCarty was writing some notes on Alice´s chart when Rose spoke directly to him.

"Aren´t you too young for being a doctor? How old are you? 26? 27?

"ROSE! Sorry Dr. McCarty she can be a little noisy sometimes and terrible inappropriate"

"It is a valid question Bella. Maybe doctors are too busy and they send interns to do their jobs. I just want to be sure that Ali is going to be well treated."

"It´s okay Miss…

"Swan, Bella Swan, but please called me Bella"

"Well, Bella, your friend is right. I am not an attending yet but I am an orthopedic resident, and one of the best, if I may add. Your friend is in good hands with me. But if your friend Rose still doesn´t trust me, we can always called Dr. Fields, she is head of the department but is busy in surgery. You don´t mind waiting do you?" he said teasingly.

Before Rose could say anything I respond "That won´t be necessary. We believe you are perfectly capable of tending for our friend, right Rose?" I said poking her on the ribs with my elbow.

But before she could replay Nurse Amanda walk in with Alice and hand doctor McCarty a big white envelope with the scans.

"Here you got Emmett. You were right as always. It´s just a minor sprain." She said batting her eyelashes at him.

"Thanks Amanda. I think Dr. Cullen was looking for you" "Which Dr. Cullen" "Esme" he said while putting some white paste in Alice´s ankle. "Okay you are going to need this cast for about two weeks. If you are going to walk a lot I suggest you use some crutches."

"Okay. So, Dr. McCarty are you married?" we both turned to look at her with wide eyes "WHAT? I am just making conversation."

"No mam, I´m not married." "Any girlfriends?" "No. I am not dating anyone" "Really? A nice man like you?"

"ALICE! I´m sorry Dr. McCarty, my friends are nice very extremely noisy"

"That´s okay. So what exactly happen to you? We need this information for the insurance company" he explain.

"Oh well, you see… what happened was that…

"We are moving to a new place and with all the mess she trio and fall down the stairs."

"Where are you guys moving from?"

"Well I´m originally from Washington, but move to Cali for college, just like Bella only that she grew up on Pennsylvania and move to Washington and that´s where we met. Rosalie is a born and raise LA girl. But.."

"Ali, what Dr. McCarty means is from where, not to give him our lives story. We lived down on Huntington Beach, but we needed a bigger place so, we are moving to San Fernando Valley."

"Oh that´s a nice area. I actually grew up in Calabasas…"

"That´s where the Kardashians grew up! Have you ever met them? Did you go to school with them?"

"Actually, I did attend the same school, but I have never met them. I´m a little younger than them. I think I saw one of them once, but I am not sure."

"I´m sorry she is obsessed with those women and I have no idea why?" I said while shaking my head. "Does she need any pain medicine or something?"

"Yes, a pain reliever and an anti-inflammatory. I have the prescription right here" he said lifting up a piece of paper.

"I´ll take that" Rose said taking the paper from his hands "I´ll go fill in down stairs. I´ll be right back"

"I think your friend does not like me very much. Was it something I said?"

"Do not worry about Rose, she is a bit difficult at first but once you met her she is a sweetheart. "

"She reminds me of someone I know. So, what do you girls work at?"

"I work with Elizabeth Stewart. She is the best stylist in LA. Bella is a free-lance writer. She writes mostly for the LA Times and Vanity Fair. She also teaches English Literature in high school twice a week. Oh! And Rose is a sports journalist."

"That sounds like a fun job. What does a stylist do exactly?"

"Basically tell people what to wear. Not only actors and singers. She has a lot of clients who are corporates and have zero time to buy their own clothing, so they hire a stylist and a shopper to do it for them. And if you love shopping like I do, is really fun spending hours searching through Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. Will I be able to work for those two weeks?" she asked concerned.

"Mmm… I will suggest not standing on your feet for long periods of times. If you can find a way of doing your job while seated, then you should not have any problem. You can walk around also, it will be better if you do it with crutches and not wearing high heels"

"Really? No high heels for two weeks?" she exclaimed. "Probably three, all depends on how´s your ankle once I remove the cast in two weeks. But if you follow my instructions you´ll be running a marathon in no time" he said kindly. "Okay that should be all. You just need to wait for your friend and you girls can go home. Take it easy for the rest of the weekend and once you go to work on Monday, see how it goes. If it hurts too much just take some days off"

"Thanks Dr. McCarty"

"It was great meeting you guys. I´ll see in two weeks. Have a good one"

I help Alice off the ER gurney and we start walking towards the exit. We were about to reach my car when suddenly a motorcycle drove pass us, almost running us over. The guy on the motorcycle parked next to a black Mercedes and start getting off and walking to the entrance. Wasn´t he even going to apologize to us for almost killing us? How rude! But Alice was already hot on his heels with a scowl on her face.

"HEY YOU! HAS ANYONE TAUGHT YOU ANY MANERS, OR HOW TO DRIVE PROPERLY? YOU COULD´VE KILL US! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING SPEEDING LIKE THAT ON A HOSPITAL…" she abruptly stop her rant and stay paralyze looking directly at the handsome young blonde who turned around when he realize she was talking to him.

"Well, excuse me ladies, that was my bad. I was in a bit of a hurry" he said smiling mischievously at us.

"Oh that´s okay. No harm done anyway, right Bella" she said smiling profusely

Motorcycle guy turned around and start walking back to the hospital and suddenly turn around and said, "Oh by the way. Next time you might want to walk on the sidewalk instead of the middle of the parking lot, especially if you don´t know how to walk appropriately, which by the looks of that cast, seems to be accurate. See ya ladies" he said while laughing and walking inside.

"What an asshole!" Alice said as I was opening the back door of the car for her to get in.

"Just forget it Al and get into the car. You heard what Dr. McCarty said about standing in your feet for long periods of time." Just then Rosalie start walking towards the car with a scowl on her face. "Rose what´s going on? What happen?"

"What happen? I´ll tell you what happen?! That annoying asshole Dr. McNotSoDreamy is what happen" she said while she threw the pharmacy bag at Alice and jump in the front seat next to me. "I returned to the exam room because I thought you guys will still be there, so I just walking in without asking. Do you know what happen next? I saw that sluty nurse and Mr. Doctor going at it in the same gurney you were just minutes ago! I said sorry for interrupting and that annoying girl had the nerve to say that I WAS INDEED interrupting and that I should get out. And he was laughed, LAUGHED! Can you believe him! And then had the nerve to said I was just jealous because probably I wasn´t getting any. So I slapped him and walked away!" we were both laughing hysterically by now "Don´t laugh! It is not funny."

"Wait a minute! Didn´t he told us he didn´t have a girlfriend? He said that right Bella?"

"Yeah I think he did mention not having a girlfriend, but maybe she was just a friend with benefits or maybe he was lying. Who knows? I really don´t care. Let´s just get home so we can finish unpacking" I said while pulling out of the parking lot.

* * *

"Where should we put this painting? The kitchen or dining room?" Alice asked from her spot on the couch. She is really enjoying this whole not standing thing.

"Kitchen" we replay at the same time. "Okay girls I´m toast. I think I´ll go to bed. Do you need any help getting upstairs Al?" Alice nodded while standing up. "That´ll be great Rose, thank you! Are you coming Bella?"

"I´ll be up in a bit. I just want to make sure everything is locked up first."

I walk around the first floor shutting lights off and making sure every window and door was properly locked. Call me paranoid, but better be safe than sorry. I notice the back yard lights were on so I went out to shut them off when I saw the same boy from earlier hiding behind the tree. I look at my watch and notice it was almost midnight. What was this kid doing out so late?

"HEY KID!" I yelled out so he will hear me "What are you doing here? Do you need me to call anyone?" I could hear him giggling from his spot behind the tree. Suddenly the expression on his face change from childish to scared. He start walking backward into the shadows, until disappearing into the dark. I took my phone from my back pocket and turn the flash light app on. All I could see was the tall white fence that surrounds our property. No sign of the kid anywhere. That was so strange, that´s the second time I´ve seen this kid appear and disappear out of nowhere. Suddenly, I felt as if someone was standing behind me. I could even feel it´s breath in my neck. I turn abruptly and saw no one there.

"My God! What´s wrong with me" I said to myself. I think I´m just tired, probably my mind is playing tricks on me. With that in mind I went back inside and straight to my room.

* * *

I´ve been lying in my bed for what seems hours now. I looked at the clock on my night stand and it read 3AM. My little midnight experience left me restless. Every time I close my eyes all I could think of were that kid and the weird feeling someone else was with me in the back yard.

"Come on Bella! Get a grip! You are a grown up, you are too old to believe in ghost stories!" I close my eyes and turned into my pillow.

I was in a deep slumber when the creaking of my door woke me up. I jump in my bed and grab my night stand lamp in my hands, "Who´s there" I said shakily.

"Bella, it´s me Rose. Can I come in?" she said poking her head. "Sure Rose, come on in"

"Are you awake?" she asked

"No, I´m sleep but talking to you" I said sarcastically but I regretted once I saw the look on her face, "What´s wrong?"

"I had a nightmare and tried getting back to sleep, but now I have insomnia and can´t even close my eyes. Can I stay here for a while?"

"Sure" I said while patting the side of my bed. She came in and sat next to me. "You want to tell me what your nightmare was about"

"It is so weird; it was like flashbacks of and old time. But I don´t really remember much. All I know is that whatever it was, scare me a lot. But, why were you up?"

"I just can´t sleep I don´t know why." We stay silent for a moment, "Rose?"

"Yes?"

"Do you believe in ghosts? I mean have you ever seen anything or feel anything?"

I don´t think I have, but sometimes when someone tells me their experience with paranormal, they look so convincing that I wonder if maybe they are telling the truth. Why do you ask?"

"I just keep thinking about what Max said you know, about the people who used to live here? Wonder what really happen to them?"

"I don´t know B, and maybe we shouldn´t ask. It's best if we don´t let ourselves get influence by gossip. Look at me, I let a silly and spooky story scare me to point of causing me nightmares."

"Yeah, maybe you are right. Wanna sleep here tonight? "she nodded while lying on the opposite side of bed. "Night, Bella"

"Night, Rose. Sweet dreams" with one of my best friends next to me, I was able to sleep for the rest of the night. No more thoughts about mysterious boys.

* * *

Loud pounding on my door startle us. "Hey girls! Rise and shine, its almost 10 AM. Why are you still on bed" Alice said while opening the door and limping inside.

"Why are you so cheery, and why are up so early on a Sunday?" Rose yawning.

"Those painkillers Dr. McCarty gave me knock me out cold. I slept like the gods last night. By the looks on your faces I guess I can´t say the same for you two."

"You guess right"

"So, what should we do today"

"Well considering that you only have one foot, and that Rose and I looked like characters from the Walking Dead, I´ll suggest staying in. Let´s have a lazy Sunday, order in and finish unpacking."

"You had me at lazy" said Rose. I harsh noise alerted us. "What was that?"

"I don´t know, but I think it came from downstairs. Let's go see" I said while getting off the bed. "Are you coming or not" I said when I turned and notice both of friends still sitting on my bed.

"I think I´ll wait for you here, you know doctor´s order"

"Yeah, and I´ll just wait up here with her"

"Okay, you two wait up here. Maybe is a break in, just remembered if you need to run away from a psycho killer always go downstairs. Never up!" I said smiling while leaving my room.

"Bella wait up! We´re coming too" I heard them yelled from my room. I tuned on my heels on saw them rushing towards me. "Do you really think someone break in? What if he has a gun? Maybe we should call the police."

"No, because if it was just the wind or something else and we call the police, they are gonna think we were pulling a prank on them and then when we really have a problem they are…" I stop on the hallway that leads to the living room.

"OH MY GOD! WHAT ON EARTH HAPPEN HERE!

We enter the living room to notice every single piece of furniture stacked in a pile in the center of the room.

"Bella, can we call the police now?"

* * *

AN:

I´ll try updating once or twice a week.

Again, sorry for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter

Any guesses who the blonde guy was?


	4. First Meet

Chapter 4

"It doesn´t look like a break in, are you ladies sure you close every door and window?" officer Black asked us, while looking around the second floor.

"Yes, I did. I was the last one going to bed last night. I check every window and door before, then I went to bed and spend a few hours awake and I never heard anything" I said. For some reason I was reluctant to tell Officer Black about the little kid.

"Even the basement?" he asked. "The basement?" we three said confused at the same time.

"You didn´t know there was a basement. Didn´t you realtor mention that when you sign the lease?"

"No, he did not… wait a minute, how do you know there is basement in this house?"

"This house was empty for a couple of years. Kids in the neighborhood like to come here and dare each other to spend a few hours. They used to get in through the basement window, which is hiding behind some bushes so that´s probably why you didn´t see it. Besides I met the family who used to live here. The door to the basement was in the kitchen next to kitchen door, sometimes if the door is open it will cover it and some people may miss it. Let's go take a look" he said while walking us through the first floor.

Just like he said it, next to the door, was another old looking door. How come we didn´t notice it before. He opens the door and reaches for the lights. We started descending into the cold creepy basement and notice it was crowded with old furniture and boxes.

"See over there" he said pointing to the far corner to an open window in top of the wall "that´s how the kids get in. Probably they decided to play a prank on you ladies. I´ll advise you to close it and may be called the security company. The Parkers installed a fancy security system a few weeks after moving in and they left so suddenly that they never uninstalled."

"That is actually a good idea. Do you know which company they hired?"

"Actually I don´t remember at the moment, but let me see what I can find out back at the station. I´ll let you know as soon as I know something. Would you ladies like some help that furniture?" he said pointing at our stack of couches and tables.

"That will be great, thank you very much" I answered. While Officer Black and his partner Officer Riley worked on helping us fixing the living room, Rose went into the kitchen to make some coffee and muffins. Once we were finished, she offered the treats to the young officers. Lucky for them, we had some paper cups, so they could have their coffees to go.

"Thanks again Officer" I said while escorting them to the front door.

"It was our pleasure Miss Swan. Before we go, can I give you ladies an advice" we nodded to let him know to keep going, "If I were you, I´ll call my realtor and asked him what else he forgot to tell me. Just to be sure I won´t have any more surprises. Have a nice day ladies" he said while walking to his patrol car.

* * *

"You´ve reach Renata Garcia. I´m sorry I am not able to take your call right now but leave me a message and I´ll call you as soon as possible"

"That´s the fourth time today. Do you think she is avoiding us?" Alice asked with her cellphone in hand. We spend most of the morning finishing unpacking and after lunch we decided to set up for the rest of the evening. We have been trying to call Renata for a while now, but we haven´t been able to reach her.

"Maybe we should try Max, after all he was the one to who show us around" Rosalie said while dealing his number on her phone. "Hello? May I speak with Max Marin please? … Oh! Really? Okay can you please have him call Rosalie Hale once he gets back? Okay. Thank you" "That was his wife, apparently he´s out of town at some real estate convention. I´m thinking maybe Renata is there too and that´s why she is not answering."

We stay silent for a moment before Rose, always the blunt one, broke the silence "Okay let´s talk about the elephant in the room. What do you think is going on? First Alice insists that someone push her down the stairs and now this thing with the furniture, I mean, we have to admit something weird is happening."

"You know guys I´ve been thinking and I realized am not so sure about what happen yesterday. I mean I was a little hangover so I probably just imagine it and look you said I just tripped. And you herd Officer good looking; kids like to come into the house. They were probably just playing a prank on us. Let´s not make such a big deal about this."

Alice did have a point; both incidents had an ordinary explanation. Why think more of it that what it really was. "Alice is right. We should just forget about it and move on. Do you guys want to watch a movie?" I asked while turning the TV on and going to Netflix.

"Can we watch some chick flick? I´m not in the mood for nothing scary." Alice asked us while taking away the remote from my hands. "So, we have.. Leo, Ryan, Heath, and Matthew… whom would you like to watch?"

"Heath" we answer at the same time while Alice play the movie.

"Which is your favorite part of the movie? Mine is when Bianca beats Joey at Prom. I´ve always wanted to do that. Never had the chance though. Al?

"Mine is when Heath serenades Julia Stiles in front of the entire school. I´ve always wanted a boy to do that for me. What about you Bella?

"Mine is the ending. I like her poem about how she hates everything about him but even though he hurt her, she loves him deeply. And the when she walks to her car she finds the guitar he bought for her. That meant he actually listened to her when she talked about starting a band. That also meant that he truly knows her well. Perfect ending for the perfect movie" I said smiling.

Truth to be told, I LOVE the entire movie. I just find their love story so sweet and real. I miss that kind of movies. Recent chick flicks are kind of dumb full of annoying pop culture references, annoying and whining teen girls and superficial jocks. God! I miss 90s TV and movies.

Once the movie was over we watch The Notebook and A Walk to Remember. After that we went to check on the door and windows before going to bed. I walked to the back yard and look around for the mysterious kid from yesterday, but I couldn´t see him anywhere. Maybe Alice was right and it was just our mind playing tricks on us or some neighborhood kids pranking us.

I shut the lights and went upstairs to get ready for bed. As soon as my head hit my pillow I fall asleep.

* * *

"Miss Swan, Headmistress Wheeler, will see you in a minute" Karen, Mrs. Wheeler, secretary told me. "Would you like something to drink?"

"A glass of water, please" I said. I was currently sitting in the waiting area outside of Mrs. Wheeler´s office, Headmistress of Winchester Prep. I´ve had been teaching English Literature here for the past 2 years. Last year I was a substitute for the English department whenever a teacher got sick. I did so great that Mrs. Wheeler gave me a temporary job as the English Literature teacher while their teacher was out on maternity leave. The semester was great even though it took me some time to earn the students respect. Being only 8 years older than them didn´t help much. But at the end it all went great. So I was a little surprised when I received a call from Karen Tuesday morning asking me if I was able to stop by on Friday morning for a meeting.

This week had passed as a blur. The girls were so busy with work that I only saw them early in the morning before they left for work. Apparently the week before 4th of July was a busy one. Being a free-lance reporter has its perks like no office hours, working from home if I like it or the office in some occasions.

I spend the whole week working on an assignment for Vanity Fair about the dangers of increasing sun radiation. I visit some dermatologists as well as some beaches for my research. It was incredible the amount of people who didn´t bother with sun block. According to the most of the doctors I visited, you must apply sun block25 minutes before sun exposure and every 4 hours after that. If you decided to go for a swim, you have to do it as soon as I you get out of the water.

I liked those articles; they were really informative not only for readers but also for me. Karen came out of the office and let me know Mrs. Wheeler was waiting for me. I stand up and start walking towards the office.

"Ms. Swan, how do you do?" she said with her thick British accent. She was a told, well groom lady, in her early fifties, but didn´t look a day over 45. "Thank you for coming, please have a sit"

"Thank you Mrs. Wheeler"

"You must be wondering why I asked you to come today. Well, as you know we are starting our summer program in a week. I´m really happy with your development last semester, the students loved your class and your teaching ways. So I´ll like to offer you a position for our summer program. It will be Universal History though, we have many students who failed and are required to take the program, than one class is not enough. I know is short notice and you´ll only have a week to get ready for your first lessons, but good thing is the curricula is set already, you´ll just to follow to it. Of course you have blanche card to conduct your classes as you please. So, what do you say?"

I stayed silent for a minute as I considered her offer. I actually like teaching, eventhough it was tough sometimes I found it rewardingly. And even when history was not my main subject, I was really good at it in school, besides the extra cash was always welcome. "I´ll be honor Mrs. Wheeler, thank you for considering me for this position."

"I cannot take all the credit, some students suggest you and are even looking forward to being in your class" she said while looking at same documents in a file and handing them to me "this is the curricula they need to work on, as well as the list of students who will be on your class. I am also including the schedule for the classes, as you see it will be a two three hour class, three times a week. If you review the list carefully, you´ll notice that some of these students, if not all, are really lazy which is probably why they failed in the first place. Make them enjoy the subject enough, so at least they will want to learn it" I start looking through the documents and recognize some of the names in the list, "if you have any questions please let me know. I´ll be out of the office all next week, but you can always reach me at my email" she said standing up, which I imagine was a polite way of dismissing me, so I follow after her, "I am really happy to have you in our staff for this summer period, if this works out correctly maybe we could look for a more permanent position for next school year" she start walking to her door and I follow her clumsily behind. "Have a great weekend Miss Swan. I´ll see you next Monday"

I was walking across the parking lot towards my car when my phone started ringing. I immediately recognize the catchy "Barbie girl" tune. I reach into my purse and start fishing for my car keys and phone.

"Hey AL, what´s up?" I said as I got into my car.

"Hi Bella! How was your meeting with Mrs. White? ""Wheeler, Alice. Her name is Mrs. Wheeler, and it was okay. She actually offered me a job for the summer. A Universal History class three times a week. I start next Monday."

"That´s awesome! We should go celebrate this weekend. Anyway I´m on way home and I´ll start packing… OH MY GOD! There´s a 4th of July Sale at The Grove! Okay girlie I have to go, I´ll check some stores see if I can find something for our trip. See you later! Love you"

"Love you too Al, have fun."

I decided to stop by Whole Foods in my way home to buy a few things we might need for our trip. We were going to Palm Springs for the 4th of July thanks to Rosalie and one of his football friends. He owned a condo there but was out of the country visiting his supermodel girlfriend, so he offered his place to Rose. I stopped at the red light and start thinking about my week. I was mostly busy writing my article, giving our place the final touches, so I didn´t much time to think about last Sunday´s event.

Even though Officer Black gave us a valid explanation of events, I still think that it was not what really happened. I also could not stop thinking about that little kid. There was definitely something strange about that kid. During the week, each time I drove along Ensenada Drive I looked around to see if I could see that little boy anywhere. But after that night I didn´t saw him again.

I pulled into the parking lot at Whole´s Foods and started walking towards the entrance. The cool air from the air conditioning hit me as I walked with the card to the vegetables area with my list on hand. One of the many things I´ve learned from mom was the art of "list making" which essentially was making a list of everything you need to do or buy in order to organize yourselves better.

I started looking through the apples trying to pick the "nice looking" ones. Alice and Rose might not have many things in common but when it came to apples they were both pretty picky. I could notice someone standing behind me tapping his/her foot on the ground. How rude! I turned and saw a young good looking man around 30 standing behind me, an annoyed expression on his gorgeous face.

I´ve already picked 7 apples, only one more and I will be done but then I heard him say, "You know, there is a lot of people here who want to get apples as well. You should be considered with the rest of us. If picking apples takes you this long, no wonder you are not married yet"

"Excuse me? What did you said to me? I think you owe me an apology" I said firmly. Who did he think he was?

"I owe you nothing! You have been in there picking apples for more than 5 minutes. What´s so bloody hard? You grab a few one, put them in a bag and that´s it. You make a seemingly easy task look like open heart surgery! Either you are an idiot or just some dumb woman who thinks this is a good way to pick conversation with men. I will never understand woman like you, so desperate to…

"EDWARD!" a sophisticated woman yelled standing next to a cart full of items. "That is no way to talk to a lady! I don´t care whatever happen! APOLOGIZE NOW!" she said in a low voice. The man, Edward, didn´t said anything he just stared at me for a few second before turning on his heels and walking away. I stand there bewildered. What the hell just happen?

"Please, apologize my son. He is having a rough day, not that it is an excuse to talk to a complete stranger in that way. I´m Esme Cullen and the rude young man was my son Edward."

I really didn´t know what to say to her, so I told her the first thing that came out of my mouth, "that´s okay Mrs. Cullen, don´t worried. I´ll just get back to my shopping. Have a good day" I said walking as fast as I could. I could tell that she wanted to say something else, but I didn´t want to find out. I walk quickly across the store, picking out a few items we might need for the weekend. The store was really packed for a Friday noon, but considering tomorrow was the fourth of July, many people might have a mid-day too.

Once I was done I walk to check out and started putting my thing on the band. The cashier ring me up, and that´s when I notice my credit card wasn´t on my wallet. I looked inside my purse and in every pocket, but I could not find anything. "Miss, is everything okay?" the cashier asked me.

"Yes, it´s just that I can´t find my credit card. I know I have it in the morning… do you mind if I run to my car really quickly and check?" I asked hopefully.

"Yeah, it should be fine for a couple of minutes. Just make it quick, okay?" I nodded and start running towards the parking lot. I opened my car and after a few seconds I found my card on the dashboard. I close the door and start running to the store. As I was reaching the check-out line were my groceries and the cashier were waiting, I saw the nice lady and her rude son standing next on line. Once he saw me approach his expression change again to annoyed, "You´ve got to be fu.." "EDWARD!" his mother scolded him before he could finish.

"Here you go. Sorry I stopped the line for so long" I told the cashier. "That´s okay, it happens all the time. Besides you didn´t take that long, only a minute or two. Okay, your total is $98.65. Would you like some cash back?"

"Hmm, no thank you"

She handed me my receipt and a pen for me to sign. Once I was done she gave me my card and wished me a good day. I left the store as quickly as I could, trying to avoid any more awkward conversations with the lady and his son.

* * *

As I pulled into my parking space I could see a blue VW Golf, Officer Black seating inside. Once he saw me, he got out of his car and walk towards me. "Good afternoon Miss Swan. Hope had a good week. Would you like some help with those?" he said noting the bags in the trunk.

"Yes that will be great, thank you" He pick up all the bags at once and move to the side so I could close the trunk. "Are you okay with all those? I can carry some" I suggested.

"Nah, that's okay. I'm more that capable of carrying these. Besides they are not that heavy" he said as we walked into the kitchen. "Where do you want these?"

"Just leave them wherever, the table or the counter should be fine, thank you"

He smiled at me as he put the groceries on top of the counter, "are you ladies going out of town for the 4th of July?"

"Actually yes, but we're staying close. Do you have any plans with your family?"

"Unfortunately no, I'm working. It's a busy day for the police, but my wife and I will hit the beach at some point during the night to see the fireworks. Speaking of which, I was able to locate the security company who installed the system last time. Luckily, I know someone who work there and he told me you girls should give him a call once you want everything set up. Because the main system is already installed it will only take about an hour to set everything up but one of you has to go to the office for the deposit and signing the contract"

"That's great Officer Black, thank you! I hope it was not a lot of trouble for you"

"It was my pleasure Miss Swan"

"Please call me Bella" "Okay Bella but only if you stop calling me Officer Black. Please call me Jacob. Can I give you and advice Miss S... I mean Bella?" I nodded. "Considering last weekend's break in I will suggest for you to take care of this before you leave for the weekend. There is too much underage drinking during the holidays and some kids under the influence tend to do stupid things."

"You are right. I'll call Rose and see if she can stop by the office to make the deposit and take care of paperwork"

"Once that's done I can call my friend and asked him for help in speeding the process."

"Okay I'll be right back. Please take a sit while I make my call"

JPOV

Some people would think my interest in Bella and her friends was considered stalking but if they were aware of their situation they will probably do the same. It was almost five years ago. I've just started in the LAPD when I was assigned to a 911 call about domestic violence. One of the neighbors called after hearing the arguments getting louder. As me and Paul, my partner and friend since we enter the academy, pulled into the driveway of 3966 Ensenada Drive we could saw a couple sitting in the front porch of the house.

" _Goodnight Mr. Parker, I´m officer Black. This is my partner Officer Riley. We´ve received a 911 call about domestic violence a few minutes ago. It´s everything okay?_

" _Good evening Officer. I´m sorry but I´m not sure you got the right house. My wife and I have been out of town the whole week. We´ve just got back from the airport but it seems someone took our spare key under the doormat. We were waiting for our friend; he has my house keys because he was taking care of our plants and mail. We notice on the taxi so he should be here any minute. We´ve been here for a couple of minutes, 5 at best" he said. His wife nodding in agreement standing next to him._

 _Just then a black car pulled into the drive way and a man got out of the car. "Hey Rick, Sophie! How was Paris? Did you guys have fun?" he stopped his questioning when he notices us standing next to his friends "What are police doing here? Is everything okay?" he asked concerned._

" _Hey Matt! Paris was great, thank you. This is Officer Black from LAPD and his partner Officer Riley. Apparently one of our neighbors called about a dispute. We were just telling the officers here that, it is impossible as now one was at the house. Our kids are with my mother in Florida till next Friday."_

" _Hello, Matthew Whitlock. I work with Rick. Are you guys sure it was not a prank?"_

" _He might be right, Jake. It could be a prank but we have to check anyway. Do you mind if we take look?"_

" _No, please go ahead. Matt do you have the key?" he opened the door and we enter the house. Everything seemed normal, nothing out of order according to the Parkers. We check both floor of the house including the attic and we couldn´t find anything wrong._

" _Your friend was probably right. It was probably a prank or someone just had a loud TV. Where´s your wife?"_

" _She went to check on the dog" Mr. Parker said walking us to the front door. "Thanks for coming anyway, it must be annoying getting these phone calls and turned out to be just a joke."_

" _Yeah, well comes with the job. Have a good evening Mr … " a loud scream interrupt my farewell. We all run towards the kitchen, Mr. Parker went straight to a door a little bit hidden behind the kitchen door. "It came from the basement; I think it was my wife"_

" _Sir I think it will be better if you stay behind us" we pulled out our guns and rush down the stairs, Mr. Parker and Mr. Whitlock hot on our heels. Once down I could not believe what I saw, all I could hear were Mrs. Parker silent sobs as his husband comforted her._

" _What on earth happen to Blue?" asked Mr. Whitlock._

" _I don´t know, but maybe the call wasn´t a prank after all." Paul said examining the body of the Parkers dead dog that was lying on the basement floor covered in scratches._

That was the first of many incidents which drove the Parkers to move out leaving everything behind them. A few days after that first report, a new 911 call was made, according to the dispatcher it was the same voice saying exactly the same thing. We tried tracing the call but it was impossible. The calls were followed by visits to the hospital, mostly from the kids and sometimes the mom.

I knew there was something wrong with that family and I always felt bad because I wasn´t able to help them. The chief said it was because they were one of my first cases and those always stick with you.

I had a feeling that maybe Bella and her friends were unaware of this and I was considering letting her know, but again at this point everything was just a suspicion. Last Sundays incident could have been a simple break in and I would probably scare the girls to dead if I share with them my suspicions.

I saw Bella returning to the kitchen, she looked so relax and happy, almost excited for their weekend away that I decided that unless I have more proof, I avoid telling them about the Parkers. The real story about the Parkers anyway.

BPOV

"Thanks Rose, I´ll let Jacob know he can go ahead and call his friend. No I stopped at the store on my way home and bought everything. Okay. I´ll see you in a few" I turned and looked at Jacob who was sitting in a barstool playing with his cellphone. "I hope I am not taking much of your time? That was Rose, she says she already pay the deposit and sign the lease for the equipment."

"No, that´s okay. My shift starts at 3PM so I have sometime before going to the station. I could tell by your conversation so I already texted my friend, he said he´s going to the technicians department to check which Tec guy may be closer, and he´ll get back to us as soon as he can" just then a loud ping noise alerted him about a new message. He looked at the screen and beamed while texting a reply and sending it. "Sorry, the Mrs. She worries with my line of career whenever she can´t get in touch with me." Another ping vibrates in his phone and he looked at it, this time with a more neutral expression. "Oh my buddy says that, apparently this is your lucky day, a Tec guy is just down the road fixing an alarm system. He should be here in a few minutes. Will you be okay by yourself or would you like me to stay and keep you company until he´s gone?"

That was really sweat, if it weren´t for that sweet smile in his face when he talk about his wife. I´ll had thought he was trying to flirt with me. His offer did sound good, I was always scare about those guys who came into your house to installed some service or fix something, specially living alone with Ali. "If it is not much trouble that will be great but please let me at least give you something for lunch, does cheese burgers sound okay?"

* * *

By the time the alarm was set up, the girls were upstairs finishing packing. I escorted Jacob to the door after thanking him for all his help.

"That´s okay, I know this seems like a nice neighborhood but you never know. Better be safe than sorry" he reach for his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans and hand me a business card, the LAPD logo on top. "This is my card, the extension on my desk at the station and my cellphone. Please feel free to call me anytime if you girls are in trouble or need anything. Have a nice weekend Bella. I hope I won´t see you soon." He said smiling

"Let´s hope" I agree, "Have a nice weekend to Jacob" I wait for him to get into his car and I waved him goodbye as he pulled out of the drive way.

"Well, well, well. What was Officer Hottie doing here; out of duty may I add?" Alice asked teasingly. "You guys would make such a good couple. You know if you wanted to have some role play Officer Hottie there, you could have told us. He´s fashion sense is terrible but who cares, as long as you get some, that´s all that matters. You are in a desperate need of a man!"

"First, his name is Jacob or Officer Black, which ever you want. Second, he is happily married and I can´t believe you think so little of me to imply I would have an affair with a married man. Third, last time he was here he said he was going to help us get the alarm system set up so we don´t have any more problems with break ins and you know what Alice I´m sick of you always sticking your nose in everybody´s business. For the last time, I DO NOT WANT A BOYFRIEND! So back off!"

I left her standing in the middle of the foyer and walked upstairs to my room. I decided to double check my bag, just in case I was forgetting something. I love lice to death, but sometime her immature attitude drives mad. Because she grove up being spoiled rotten by her dad, she believes everyone has to do what she wants.

"Hey, can I come in or your angry with too for association" Rose asked as she stuck her head through my door.

"You are safe, for now" I said as I closed my bag.

"Hey I know Alice is an annoying spoiled brat, and she sometime can be infuriating, but she doesn´t have a bad heart. She´s just persisting and doesn´t have a filter, but in the bottom she just wants was best for the people she loves. She just needs to learn when to shut up."

"I know" I said defeated.

"Bella, can I come in please. I want to apologize for my behavior."

"Come in"

"So I just wanted to say I´m sorry, to both of you actually. You are right Rose I´m a spoiled brat, I need to learn some boundaries and when to shut up. I´ll work on that, but I need my 2 best friends with me to help. What do you guys say?"

We stared at her for a moment before going for group hug.

"Oaky let´s just pretend that, that didn't happen. Let´s take the bag and groceries to the car and hit the road before rush hour."

Once everything was on the trunk of Rose´s red BMW, we went back inside to check if the doors and windows were close. We left some lights on, just in case and went to activate the alarm.

"Okay girls since I´m driving, who will be my copilot?"

"I think Bella should be. She is better with the GPS and stuff than me. I´ll just go in the back." Alice said as she got into the car "WHAT!" she said when she noticed me and Rose staring at her.

"Nothing" we said. We got into the car and Rose started the engine. "Palm Springs, here we go!"

As we were pulling off the drive way, I could almost swear I saw the little kid looking at us, a terrifying expression on his face, as we drove away.

* * *

AN

I hope you liked this chapter. Again sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes.

So we have met Edward and Esme, Edward seem like a jerk but he was really having an awful day.

I know it is out of character for Bella to tell Alice to back off, but I´ve read so many fics where Bella just does everything Rose and Alice want, specially Alice and I found that really annoying. I think friends shouldn´t force friends to do something the y dont like or want. In Bellas case, mostly she hates shopping and dressing up.

So in my story Alice is spoiled but she will try to change and be a little bit better. As for Rose, she has a strong personality and does not take crap from anyone because of growing up in Hollywood, that´s why she know how to handle Alice a little better.

Bella just always keeps everything in and never lets Alice knows what bothers her, but she will also start being more open.

You might have notice a Whitlock in Jacob´s flashback. Yes, he is related to Jasper somehow. You´ll find out later how the boys are related to this particular house.

I want to thank MissRainbow13 for always leaving comments on the chapters. As well as xxxbulletxxx, and yes, you assumed correct, that was Jasper.


	5. Meeting Jasper

Chapter 5

"Would you like something to drink?" the bartender lady asked me. She look like she was 16, with her perfect sun kissed complexion, big blue eyes and perfect shinny blonde hair.

"What do you have with vodka? And what would you recommend?"

"Mm for a warm night like this, probably a sex on a beach, although cosmopolitan is my personal favorite but it is more New York that California" she said smiling at me.

"Sex on a beach it is" I answered. I was sitting by myself a The Spring Country Club. Rose and Ali left for the spa as soon as we arrive. We were going to get together here for a late lunch. The two and half hour drive was a fun one; we spend the whole drive singing alone with the radio, mine and Alice argument long forgotten.

"Here you go, enjoy!" she said handing me an orange looking drink. "Would you like something to eat with that? I don´t wanna be noisy but I wouldn´t recommend drinking on an empty stomach. Maybe an appetizer?"

"That would be great thanks. Anything with cheese should be fine." I started sipping on my drink when I notice someone staring at me from the other end of the bar. It was a blonde good looking guy who looked really familiar, but I couldn´t tell from where I knew him.

He stood up with his drink in hand and started walking towards me. He sat down on the empty barstool next to mine. "Excuse me Miss but, do I know you? You look really familiar, I just can´t tell where I´ve seen you before. Maybe from work? I´m Jasper by the way" he said while giving me his hand to shake.

"I´m Bella, and yes I think I´ve seen you before as well. Do you live in LA?"

"Actually yes. What do you for work Bella? I am a doctor, well a psychiatrist actually. I have my own practice but I consult on a few hospitals in the area. Do work at any hospital maybe?"

Oh! Now I know from where I knew him. "NO, NO. I would never be able to be a doctor. Awful coordination but now that you mention the hospitals. I think I know how I know you. Do you happen to drive a black motorcycle?" he gave a mischievously smile while he nodded.

"Well, you kind off almost run me and my friend over last weekend I think. It was at the parking lot of…"

"UCLA Medical Center. Guilty as charge. Let me apologize for that but I was in a hurry, not that it is an excuse but I was being page for an emergency consult. Can I buy you a drink as a peace offering?"

"Is he bothering you? Jasper how many times I have to tell you not to bother the clients! Specially young naïve girls, no offence."

"Non taken"

"I wasn´t bothering her Helena. I was just apologizing for a run in we had last weekend. I was suggesting I should buy her a drink for my bad manners."

"A drink and her appetizer will be better, don´t you think. I´m sorry for whatever stupid thing my cousin did, please accept your drink on the house."

"That´s okay don't worry you two. It was just an accident. It could have happen to anyone."

"Okay now that that is settled I have to get back to work. I see new customers coming in. I have my eyes on you Jasper Whitlock."

"I´m sorry about that, Helena is a little annoying sometimes specially with me. So what do you say about that drink?"

"Just to be clear, this is completely platonic right. No romantic intentions or flirting involve."

"Of course"

We spoke for a while, about our jobs and a little bit about our day to day. Twenty minutes into our conversation I receive a text from Rose. She and Alice were tired and were on their way home. They didn´t know I had already left and I was waiting for them here. I just told her okay and that I was going for a walk and will be back later.

"Is there something wrong?"

"No, it was just my friends letting me know that they can make it to dinner. I guess I´ll just eat something at the bar then"

"Nah, you are eating with me. I was planning on going to the dinner but I didn't really want to go in there alone and look silly. Would you like to join me my lady? No romantic intentions or flirting involve of course."

"Yeah, that would be nice"

* * *

"So you are a writer, right? Have I've seen your work?" Jasper and I were sitting in the club's main dining. Reviews were accurate, this food was amazing. We wind out ordering three different entrées; fish, beef and chicken. I was having a glass of wine while Jasper ordered a coke because he had to drive back to his parents place.

"Possibly, my most recent article is a health research about the use of sun block. Before that, I wrote about six freshmen girls, private and state California colleges. They were from out of town, small towns mostly I follow each of them for a day or two to see how they adapt. In some cases I could not use their real names, and obviously I could not mention the name of the school."

"I think I did read that one. One of your subjects might have been a patient of mine. Your article helped her realize what she was doing was wrong and some of the tips you write down actually help her."

"I am happy for her. Some of those girls were partying way too hard in order to fit in. One of them even passed out at a party and woke up next morning naked on her bed. Till this day she doesn't know if she slept with someone." I said sipping my wine. I was actually having a great time. Jasper told me a little bit about his life.

He grew up in Manhattan, but his family is from California. His father is a doctor and his mother a child's therapist. They move to California when Jasper was 15 and they have lived here ever since. As the son of a prestigious doctor, he went to John Hopkins and did his residence at Cedars Sinai. As he told me earlier, he has some privileges in some hospitals around LA, mostly Cedars Sinai and LA Medical, but he spends most of his time in his private practice. He has different kind of patients but mostly young people in there teens and twenties.

"You know, I'm having a great time. This is the first time in a while that I have a dinner date this enjoyable. Ever since I broke up with Maria my parents have pushed for us the get back together. Once they realize it was not happening they started inviting their friends with daughters my age for dinner. That's why I was hiding here. Right now they are at the house with one of my father's colleagues from New York and his daughter is pretty annoying and shallow, so I run away as soon as I could. Pretty lame, huh?" he said a little bit sad.

"I don't think is lame and I get what you mean. Same happens to me all the time, mostly from my best friends than my parents, well my mother actually. My dad will be extremely happy if I decided to become a nun." I said jokingly to lighten the mood a little bit. I could tell that even though he loves his parents, they seem to have a difficult relation. "Every time I call my mom, she always asks about any potential date i might had have. She did her fair share of setting up when I was a teenager but she stopped once I turned 21. Alice on the other hand, is obsessed with the idea of getting me a boyfriend. She is always trying to set me up with people from work, but most of her co workers are a little shallow. I went to a few dates and then I told her that either she stopped or I would never speak to her again. She keeps trying though, every time I spoke with a guy, any guy, she is already organizing the wedding."

"She seems something" he said meditatively. Suddenly my phone started ringing and for the ringtone I could tell it was Alice.

"Speaking of the devil...excuse me" I said as I answer my phone "Alice?"

"Bella, where the hell are you? We are worried sick about you" I checked my phone and notice it was almost eleven o'clock. Wow! I've been talking with Jasper for more than four hours.

"Sorry Al, I didn't realize it was this late. I was having dinner with a friend and lost track of time. I'll be home in a bit."

"A girl friend or a boy friend?" she said teasingly.

"I'm hanging up now. See you guys later" I hang up the phone and put it back into my clutch. "Sorry, I guess we lost track of time. Did you know is almost eleven?"

"Yes I did, and unless you want to order a desert I think we should ask for the check." I nodded in agreement as he raised his hand to call the waitress. She saw us from the back of the room and Jasper made the sign for the check. A few minutes later we were leaving the restaurant.

"Do you have a car or would you like a ride home? I'm guessing since you have that extra glass of wine you just took a taxi"

"Your guess is right, but I could never bother you to give a ride home." I said a little embarrassed.

"Oh no young lady. I am not taking no for an answer. I'm taking you home, I would feel guilty if something happens to you. Come on my car is over here"

"Car? What happen to your motorcycle?"

"I left it home. My parents don't like it very much. They say I should not be riding that at my age. So when ever I have to see them I drive my car." he explain as we reach a black Mercedes. He opened the passenger door for me and the got into the car.

As he pulled out of the parking lot, he turned to look at me said "Bella, I have no idea where you are staying at?"

"Oh, I wrote the address somewhere before leaving the house. I have the paper in my purse" I said as I started looking inside. Once I found it I told him the address and he started driving towards the house.

"This is close to my house. Do you mind if I call you tomorrow if I have the need to run away again. I would call my cousin but tomorrow is a busy day for bartenders everywhere in the country." he asked looking a little embarrassed.

"That would be great, but I have to warn you, my friends can be a little lo much for you to handle, specially Ali."

"I'll take my chances if the occasion arises." he said laughing as he pulled into the drive way of the massive house.

"Wow! this place is really nice. Are sure you are not some kind of mommy porn writer?" he said teasingly.

"I wish, this place belongs to one of Rosalie's friends. He was going to visit his girlfriend somewhere and Rose asked if he could lend it to her for the weekend, so here we are." I said fishing for the keys Rose gave me earlier.

"That was cool of him. So before I forgot" he pulled out his wallet from his jacket and hand me a card "this is my business card, the address for my practice is there as well as the phone number. If you ever need any advice for one of your researches I'll be more than happy to help you. Okay I guess this is good bye then, I really had a wonderful night. Thank you for listening to me whining about my parents"

"It is okay, I had a great time too. And now that I have your number I'll called you if I ever feel like whining about something"

"You do that! Bye Bella, it was great meeting you!"

"Likewise, bye Jasper" he started walking to his car when i got an idea "Wait!" I walked towards his car and grab the piece of paper i gave him earlier and a pen I found on the dashboard. I wrote my number and hand it to me "if you indeed found yourself trap tomorrow, just give me a call. We'll figure something"

He put the piece of paper inside his pocket and wave me goodbye as he got into his car.

* * *

"Where were you last night?" Alice asked as soon as I walked into the kitchen next morning. She was wearing a white T-shirt with the USA flag on it and a pair of white denim shorts.

"I went to the club a little bit earlier and when you guys called me I was already there. I run into someone I knew there so we had dinner and catch up a little bit." I lied to them but honestly i didn't feel like answering Alice inquisition this early. "And before you asked, no, you don't know him."

"Why are you lying to me, I know all of your friends. Remember we went to high school and college together." she said smugly. It was times like this that I wondered why we were friends when we were evidently complete opposites.

"Yeah, you are right, but remember I grew up in this town call Pennsylvania, in the east coast. I spent almost 15 years there Alice, you do not know all of my friends and I already told you, please stop being so noisy" I said as I grab a glass of juice

"I think Bella is entitled to have her privacy Alice. If she doesn't want to tell us right now about her friend, she doesn't have to. And whenever she starts dating someone, she can keep it a secret as well. We love you Al, but Bella is right, you are a little bit noisy. Maybe you coworkers and celebrity clients like to gossip, but we are your friends and we would like to keep some things private."

"I'm sorry girls; I know I said yesterday I would try to be different. I guess I ruined the day."

"We don't want you to be different Ali. Just for you to understand that if we want something to be private, not because you keep asking and making hurtful remarks, we are going to tell you." Rose said as she put some scramble eggs on the table.

"Let's just forget about everything, and have a great day okay?" I said, so should we go for the pool. Or what?

"Oh, last evening at the spa we were invited to a party. Is in some girls house. We should go check it out and if it is boring we could just return here and do something." Alice said happily while Rose looked worried.

"What is it Rose?"

"It just that this girl looked a little bit young, like high school young or college freshman young. I'm pretty sure she is underage and I don't wanna get in trouble."

"We could go and take a look. If the girl is indeed underage then we'll just get back here and do something else. Besides we spend the last six 4th of July partying on the beach, this year I'll like something a little bit different."

"Okay I guess we could, but I'll say I told you so if she turns out to be 18" Rose said.

Once we clean the kitchen after breakfast we went upstairs to get ready for this infamous party. Jasper was right, the house was really cool and big. You could tell someone with money live here. I looked through my bag and decided to wear a blue bikini with a denim short and yellow shirt. I grabbed my sunblock and sun glasses and put them in my small purse as well as another bikini and beach dress just in case.

I met the girls downstairs and we left for the party. The house was pretty close to where we were staying and as Rose drove through the street I wonder which of those big houses was Jasper's parents.

By the time we got there, quite some people had already arrived. We walked inside and Rose said "I told you so". Some of these kids look like 15, but there were some who looked our age so we decided to stay for a while. Rose and Ali went to look for the host while I stay behind in one of the pool beds. Next to me two girls where talking about a college assignment.

"Becca, this is summer break. You shouldn't be thinking about college classes right now" her friend told her.

"I know but Professor Geller's class has a few vacancies and I really want to be in that class, that why I'm doing all this extra credits during the summer."

"I still cannot understand why someone will like to be in a class where they talk about made up things. Is not like you learn something"

"Is not made up Lisa, ghosts do exit, as well as many paranormal entities, like demons and poltergeists. Just because you don't believe it, it doesn't mean it doesn't exists"

Even though I might look like a crazy person, I decided to interrupt their conversation, "Hey sorry to interrupt you girls, but I could avoid listening to you and I was wondering what do you mean by this paranormal class?"

"Oh, that okay, you see Professor Geller is a paranormal researcher. She has conducted some haunted houses investigations and has some proof ghosts do exist. Every semester she gives a lecture about her work and the best student in her class in sometimes invited to join her team, if he wants to of course."

"So what you are saying is that this Professor has proof that ghosts exist? Like what, photos or something?"

"Yes, photos, videos, and audio tapes. She has a special equipment for that. Of course many people think she is crazy, but I like her. I hope I'm good enough to join her team. I'm Becca Cooper by the way and this is my friend Lisa"

"A pleasure to meet you Becca, my name is Anita" for some reason I was a little ashamed to gave her my real name, so I gave her my made up name for drunk boys, "one more question... what exactly are paranormal events, I mean what needs to happen in order for someone to determine your house is haunted."

"I don't know yet silly, I haven't taken the class yet but according to some reading I've been doing it all depends, on the kind of spirit you have at your house. Kids like to play pranks on you and people who die being happy. But others are a little bit meaner I'll say that if you suddenly get hurt with no apparent reason, you should call someone like Professor Geller. Department of Paranormal activities in Cornell University."

"I didn't knew Cornell had a Department of Paranormal Activities" I said surprised.

"Many people don't know it either, don't worry. It actually belongs to the Psychology Department and it´s more like an office in the third floor. But if something is happening at your house and you can explain it I would suggest you research your house's history as well as the land's. Some developments have been built over land where people were buried during the Civil War and such." I could see Rose and Ali walking this way.

"Thanks for the tip, I'll keep it in mind if something ever happens. Have a nice day girls"

"You too" I stand up and walk to meet the girls. "So what happen to your friend form the spa?"

"She is kind off wasted right now and Rose was right. She is a senior in high school or will be a senior this year. Her sister is a junior in sophomore in college, but the party is mostly hers. Any way everyone here is under 21 so I guess we should leave before police shows up to break the party. By the way, what were you talking about with those girls? You are usually shy around strangers?"

"Oh I was just asking them if they new the host and such." just then my phone rang, it was a unknown number. I picked up anyway because it could be an emergency or my dad calling from the base.

"Hello?"

"Is it too soon to ditch them?" I recognize his voice immediately and started laughing.

"Actually not, it's almost noon. Me and my friends came to this party but apparently we are a little too old considering the host is 18. We were just leaving, just let me asked them what we are doing next, hold on a minute" I turned to look at Alice and Rose as I put my hand over the speaker, "is my friend from last night, he is wondering if he could join us for today?"

"It fine with me, maybe he could help us with the grill and we could out some beef and chicken or go to the club to play some golf or tennis" Rose said exited. "What about you Al?"

"It's okay with me too"

"Great! Thanks girls"... "Hey Jasper, do you know how to play golf or tennis?"

"Yes, I do. My dad made me learn both when I was younger. Do you girls want to go to the club? I can meet you there in a few minutes"

"Make it twenty; we have to go home to change. We are not really dressed for golfing. Also we were hoping you knew how to use a grill?" he started laughing .

"I think that can be arrange. How about this we go the club and play a little bit and then we can go to your house and I'll cook you girls some lamb chops. You know considering we are all going to the same place, I could pick you up."

"That will be great! Thanks Jasper, we'll see at the house in a few then"

"See you, bye Bella"

"So what's the plan?" Rose asked as we walked to the car.

"He is picking us from the house and we are going to the club for a while. Play some tennis or golf. Then we go back to the house and he will cook some lamb chops for us."

"Wow that's really nice of him" Alice said getting into the back seat.

"I know, especially considering I just met him last night." I realize my mistake when both Rose and Alice yelled "WHAT?"

"Well I didn't met him last night per say. It was actually last weekend, remember Al that guy in a motorcycle who almost run us over. Well his name is Jasper and he is a doctor, I run into him last and he apologize for the incident and offered to buy a drink. Just then you guys call cancelling and he asked me to have dinner with him. We talk a lot, but it was all pretty friendly, nothing romantic at all."

"I guess if he did apologize and you say he is a nice person, I trust you judgement. Let´s get back to the house and get ready; by the way, what do people wear to go golfing?" Alice asked concern about her outfit.

* * *

"Hi, thanks again for saving me from a dull afternoon. My parents were busy showing their guest some new piece of art they bought. I took my chance and sneak through the back door."

"That was really mature of you. But please come in" I said while moving to the side to let him into the house. "My friend Alice is almost ready; she is the one with cast so I guess she could sit in the golf car if she gets tired." I saw a small cooler in his hands "what´s that?"

"The lamb chops of course. They need to be marinated for a few hours so by the time we get back we just put them on the grill. Do you mind showing me to your kitchen?"

"Of course, please follow me" I said as we walked into the kitchen were Rose was preparing some sandwiches. "Rose this is Jasper, Jasper, Rosalie" they shook hands and exchange pleasantries. He started working on the sauce, which took him a couple of minutes. Once he was done, he put the lamb chops in a bowl and covered it with film and put it in the fridge. Rose offered him a BLT sandwich which he gladly accepted.

"Okay girls I´m ready. Oh! I see we have company" Alice said as she walked into the kitchen. "You must be Jasper, I´m Alice also known as the screaming lady from the parking lot who you almost run over" she said jokingly.

"Nice to meet you Alice, and about that, I´m really sorry about my behavior that day. Not that it is an excuse but I was kind off in a hurry. Please accept my apologizes."

"Apology accepted. Now if everyone is ready I think we should get going."

After making sure that the house was properly closed we got into Jasper´s car and he pulled out the drive and into the road. The drive to the club was considerably short maybe 10 or 15 minutes. "So, Bella told us you are a doctor, what kind of doctor are you?" Rose asked bluntly breaking the silence.

"I´m a psychiatrist. I work mostly with teen and young adults because it is easy for me to relate to them and their problems. I also have a few parents who have trouble relating with their kids so I help them trying to understand them. A lot of my patient´s parents always request for me to prescribe something to their kids, but I don´t like it if it is not necessary and that´s when they get annoyed. They´ll rather have their kids medicated, that work on their problems."

"I always have found psychology kind off fascinating" Rose said from the back seat behind me. She lean a little bit in front so she could talk to Jasper, "When I was 16 my mom though I was depressed because I stopped a lot of activities, mostly things she wanted me to do. She was under the impression that I loved ballet, and those stupid castings to be a model, so when I dropped everything she just assumed it was because I was depressed and took me to a shrink. He told her I was okay, that my personality was changing and so were my interest. My mom told him he was unprofessional and took to three different doctors, until she gave up. I think she was a little disappointed on me, because I didn´t want to follow on her footsteps." I heard Rose said a little bit sad. I already knew this story; Rose told us a few years ago when we took Psychology 101 on college. It was in that moment that I realize that Jasper and Rose had a lot in common. I choose to change the subject before everyone started getting nostalgic.

"Hey Rose, Why don´t you tell Jasper about your job?" I suggested. Rose always got excited when speaking about cars and sports. And she started telling him about everything. Her work as a journalist, her travels and that she was lucky enough to have travel to Brazil last year to watch the USA Soccer team playing at the FIFA World Cup. I looked at the rearview mirror and saw Alice listening to their conversation.

By the time we made it to the club we were a bit hungry so Jasper suggested ordering a few snacks at the bar. We sat in a table and order cokes and some appetizer to share. Rose and Jasper were in deep conversation about cars.

Once we were done eating we walked to the golf course and rented to golf carts. The girls rode together as I rode with Jasper. I took the opportunity to tell him he should talk to Alice as well. He said he didn´t knew what to talk with her about. So I told him to just ask about her job.

We got off the cart close to whole 1, and Jasper offered to teach us how to play. While Rose was taking her turn, Jasper decided it was a good moment to start conversation with Ali. "So, Alice what do you for a living?"

"I am a stylist" she answered shortly,

"What does a stylist do exactly?"

"We just pick some outfits according to our clients' preference and event they´ll attend. We take them to their house so they can pick which they´ll like."

"You must like it a lot."

"I do." What was going on with her? She loves to ramble about her amazing job. Does she not like Jasper or what? He kept trying to pick a conversation with her but every time she answered with monosyllables. The same happen when we were all talking about random things, we try to include her but she just stood quiet the whole time.

After a few hours at the golf course we were tired and hungry so we decided to get back home. Once we arrived Jasper went into the back yard to turn the fire on the grill. As I was about to ask Alice what was wrong with her, but Rose beat me to it, "what the hell is wrong with you? You´ve been acting weird the entire day. Does this have anything to do with this morning conversation?"

"No, I just don´t know what to say. I don´t wanna looked dumb or shallow, which I am most of the time. So I just rather stay quiet." Alice said shyly.

"It´s okay if you don´t want to come off as shallow Al, but you´re being kind of rude instead. Like it annoys you to have him around." I said to my best friend.

"Really? This sucks! I don´t know how to act, I mean people like you because you are nice Bella and you always listen to them. Rose can relate with both, boys and girls, about many different topics. All I ever talk about is fashion and celebrity gossip." She said defeated.

"Just be yourself, you are nice too Ali and we´ll help you with topics. I´ll give you a crash course on sports right now. Come sit here" Rose started to tell her about American football and I decided to go outside and help Jasper. I took the bowl with lam chomps out of the fridge and walk towards the grill, taking with me a few vegetables as well.

"Hey, do you need any help?" I have the lamb chops here and also some vegetables we could grill. Should we put some potatoes with butter on foil paper?"

"That´s a great idea actually. Why don´t you bring everything here and we will grill it once it´s hot enough."

We were almost done with slicing asparagus when Alice and Rose came out of the house carrying some towels and wearing beach dresses with their bikinis underneath. "Do you guys want to go for a swim?" Rose asked us as she set her things in a chair next to the pool. We declined her invitation and went back to cooking.

"Hey Jasper, can I asked you something? Do you believe in the paranormal?"

"Like ghosts and stuff like that?"

"Yes"

"I don´t know really, I mean one of patients said she could see them and talk to them but how can you believe in something you have never see. I bought a book online and after reading it I still don´t know what to believe. I guess that sometimes your mind can play tricks on you. Why do you ask?"

"No reason. I was just curious." I said smiling at him. Jasper was right. I let Renata´s story about haunted houses got to me and was probably imagining that little boy. But for some reason I kept thinking about what Becca said. Maybe I should make a little background check on the house.

We had a nice dinner and watch the fireworks from our backyard. After a while we went inside and played Pictionary. Rose and Jasper versus me and Alice. We had a really great time, Rose and Jasper made plans to go to a Lakers game next week, and he reminded me to give him call whenever. It was after midnight when he said goodnight to us.

"You were right Bella, he is really nice! Finally someone I can watch sports with who actually knows what's happening! No offense"

"Not worry, I know what you mean. Well I´m going to bed. Sweet dreams guys!" I could their echoed good nights as I went upstairs. I reached my room and collapsed in my bed not even bothering in changing.

* * *

"This was a great weekend! I can´t believe we have to work tomorrow!" Rose commented as she pulled into the driveway.

"I know right, but at least you got the chance to use the pool and play golf. I basically sat there watching you guys have fun" Alice said with a pout on her face. "I´m really tired, I think I´ll go to bed. Bella do you mind taking my bag upstairs?" I nodded my head as I saw Alice walking upstairs.

"I´m so tired I could sleep for an entire week. Do you have anything plan for tomorrow?" Rose asked me as she closed the trunk of her car.

"I just have to get my lessons ready. Classes start…" we heard Alice screaming from upstairs and we run quickly to find her standing in front of her room, she was pale and had both hands over her chest.

"Alice what is it? What´s wrong?" she didn´t say anything just pointed with her finger to her room. We peeked inside and look around. All her drawers were open, some clothes were lying on the floor and some bottles were open and their content was spilling over her dresser.

"Alice I think you need to clean your room ASAP! Now can tell us why were you screaming?" Rose asked concern. Rosalie has never lived with Alice before so she didn´t knew that Alice was an order freak! She cleans her room twice a day.

"Rose, I think this mess is the reason why Alice was screaming. I think we should call the police or the security company. If someone broke in, the alarm should have had activated" suddenly we heard a loud noisy coming from my room, next to glass breaking and an awful scream.

We ran downstairs and help Alice to get out of the house. I grab my phone from my purse and dial… "911, what´s your emergency?"

"There is someone in my house"

* * *

AN:

Thank you for reading, and again I apologize for any grammar mistake that makes reading the story hard.

Some one asked me why didn´t Bella told Edward off, as I mention in the last chapter Bella keeps all her feelings bottle inside. Just like Edward decided to explode with her she did it with Alice when she was teasing her. Also she was a little surprised about Edward´s abrupt behavior and didn´t have a chance to react accordingly.

Most of the facts in my story are real, except for a few thing that I would point, like the paranormal studies class at Cornell. I made that up.

I´ll try to update twice a week but it could be more. Depends in how much time I have to write.


	6. Starting Over

I was so distracted thinking about the past week's events that I barely notice the bell ringing on the school´s corridors. I stood up to address my group of 15 students, who until now have been taking a quiz about the 18th century.

"Pencils down everyone and please pass the quizzes to the front. Do not forget to read chapter 12 and 13 about the French Revolution and no Miss Keller," I said looking to the blonde blue eyed sixteen year old "watching Marie Antoinette is not the same as reading the book. Remember we´ll talk on Monday about how he American Revolution influenced the French one. Have a great weekend everyone."

I sat on my desk and started putting all my belongings in my bag. It had been a long week. We have been studying the 18th century most important events, like the American Revolution and posterior Independence. The school has a great History program in which students have to study events happening in the USA and the world simultaneously and how they are both affected by each other. I´ve been giving this class for two weeks now and I was really enjoying it. But I was still very troubled about the events happening at the house.

After our weekend in Palm Springs, we called the police to report the break in. We were waiting outside when police show up. Unfortunately for us, the police officer assigned to our 911 call was a douchebag who didn´t believe our story. It didn´t help either that the security system didn´t registered any disturbance in the house. He said that probably one of us gave a friend a key or the code for the alarm and that she was pulling a prank on us. He reminded us that pulling pranks on police force was a crime and that we should be certain that something was really wrong before dialing next time. He left without even checking the entire place.

Alice said that probably she left the window open and a bird got in and made the mess because that was the only reasonable explanation. Really Alice? Rose didn´t comment much on the subject and she has been acting like nothing is wrong. But I have been paying closer attention to both of my friends for the past two weeks and notice small things happening that confirm my theory. Rose kept loosing stuff or like she likes to call it she "misplaced" a lot of things these days like her keys, the remote, folder, important papers. She´s been working extra hours this days, something about a NFL deflated balls scandal, and arrives past midnight which leads to Alice´s complaining. She says that every night when Rose gets home, she walk into her room and start bothering her by pulling her feet, hair or touching her face. Rose keeps saying that she is not doing anything and that Al is probably having nightmares.

They have been fighting no stop for two weeks which is starting to bother me a lot. That´s why I have decided to start doing a little research about the house just like Jacob said. I was so distracted thinking about my problems that I didn´t notice the slim shadow approaching me from the back of the classroom.

"Miss Swan?" I looked up to find one of my students, Alison Keller staring at me with curious eyes. "Do you have a minute?"

"Yes, of course Alison. Tell me what can I do for you?"

"I was wondering if you could give me a ride home. My boyfriend was supposed to pick me up, but we broke up last night and I barely see my dad in the mornings, so I didn´t have a chance to ask for money for a taxi or to have my car back. He took it away as punishment for failing History."

I looked at her for a minute contemplating my options. I could tell her no, but is not like I had nothing else to do for the day, besides obsessing about the fact that something is wrong with the house. "Sure Alison, just let me finish this and clock out in the office and then I´ll take you home. But you need to talk to your father about this okay?" she just nodded her head and said thank you.

I close the classroom and walk to the main office to leave the keys and sign out. "Where do you live?" I asked her as we got into my car.

"Bel-Air" she said while texting someone on her phone. "But do you think you think you can drop me at the UCLA Medical Center? My dad just texted me to let me know that he is going out of town for the weekend and that I need to stay with my aunt Esme. She is a doctor there." As soon as she said UCLA Medical I remembered about Alice.

"Oh crap! Mm... Sorry I shouldn´t have said that in front of you. It´s just that I forgot I have to take my friend to the Dr. so they can remove her cast." She started looking down at her lap a little disappointed, "Do you mind if we stop by to pick her up first? "

"No, of course no. Thank you Miss Swan, other teachers will had me calling someone else. You are really great, everyone in class thinks so" this was good information for me. If the kids like my class and got good grades I have more chances to get a permanent position at the school.

* * *

"Do you really work at Nordstrom?" Alison asked Alice once we were inside the car. Because of her cast I was able to park close to the door, so it only took us about 10 minutes to help her get to the car.

"Not really, but I work with them. I work for Elizabeth Stewart as one of her stylist. I don´t get many celebrities yet, but I like it. I help by going to stores to pick outfits for some clients and organizing outfits for an entire week. Some people have good taste, but no time or idea how to properly combine textures and colors, so I help them do that by selecting 5 work outfits, with some casual and night out outfits as well." Alison was staring at Alice like she was the Mona Lisa or something. I could tell just by looking at her that she was into fashion and celebrity gossip, so Alice´s job seem to her like the dream job. "So, how is my dear friend doing as a teacher? Is she nice or completely evil?"

"She is actually great. I spend the entire year lost at Mrs. Compton history class because she is very boring. Miss Swan makes class fun, especially when she puts those videos from History channel. Even I understand most of her class." Alice gave her a sad look when she was not looking. I could tell how much Alison reminded her about herself. If she knew about her mother I bet she would adopt her in the spot, but that was Alison´s story to tell, I only knew it because of her file which school gave when I requested the students grades, so I could see why they failed the class to begin with.

"So, it is not that am not enjoying you company but, we are you hanging with two boring 25 year old on a Friday afternoon. Don´t you rather spend the time with your friends at the mall?" Alice asked her. I love Alice way to much but the big problem with her was being incredibly noisy.

"I can´t go out. My dad grounded me because I failed History. He said I can have my privileges back once I pass the class. But even if I wasn´t, I have to go meet my aunt at UCLA Medical because I´ll be staying with her while my dad is out of town. He usually takes me on his trips during the summer, but because of the whole summer school thing I have to stay here."

"That´s a shame. I remember when my dad used to took me on those trips. We always had lots of fun once he was done with his business. Do you like your aunt?"

"Yes, she is great! She works as a pediatrician; she used to be mine until I got too old to go to her practice. Her husband and my cousin Edward are doctors too. They are really homey unlike many rich families, which I think is mostly thanks to my aunt, because that´s how grams is too. I never met uncle Carlisle parents, so I don´t really know if they were nice or not but I overheard my dad talking to my uncle Ben about them. He said that they died under weird circumstances before I was born and that Edward wad with them." For some reason her story spike my interest but I didn´t had a chance to ask her anything about it because we were close to the hospital.

She helped Alice walk inside while she asked her questions about her "fabulous job". Once we reach the front desk I asked for Dr. McCarty while Alison asked one of the nurses to page her aunt. "Dr. McCarty will be down in a minute Miss Brandon, please have a seat." The other nurse told Alison that her aunt was in surgery and wasn´t answering her pager. That she could wait there for a while until someone could reach her, so Alison sat with us while we waited for Dr. McCarty.

"Miss Brandon? Bella? How do you do? I hope that foot is feeling better and who might this lovely young lady be?"

"Hello Dr. McCarty, we are doing fine thank you. This is Alison, one of Bella´s students and I believe she is also the niece of one of your colleagues. Do you mind if she stick around with us for a bit. She is waiting for her aunt to come out of surgery." Alice said so quickly that even I had trouble understanding her.

"Please ladies, after you" he said as he led us to an exam room. Alice hopped on the gurney and Emmett started cutting the cast. "So Alison, in which department does your aunt works? Maybe I could ask one of the nurses to check how long she will be".

"That will be great Dr. McCarty, thank you. She is a pediatrician, her name is Esme Keller" she said.

"Wait! Do you mean Dr. Esme Cullen! She is the head of the whole department and amazing. Her technique in open-hearth surgery in new borns is the best I've ever seen. Wait you are Edward's Alison? He doesn't shut up about you. You must be his favorite cousin."

"Actually I'm the only cousin he has, at least from my side of the family. Daddy is Aunt Esme's younger brother and I'm an only child."

"Still, I think your cousin just loves the ground you walk on Alison." Nurse Amanda chose that same moment to walk into the exam room. Images from Rose's story about what happen in this same exam room three weeks started flooding through my mind. I turned and look at Alison; you could tell she was annoyed by Nurse Amanda presence. If looks could kill, she will be dead by now. "Amanda could you please go to OR 3 and asked Dr. Cullen how long will her surgery take? Also let her know that her niece is here with me." She just nodded and started walking away from the room. I couldn't avoid looking at her as she left and wonder if she was a good nurse or on of those girls who just wants to get a rich husband in order to have material things.

"You don't like her very much do you?" Dr. McCarty asked me. "I know she can be a little… bitchy sometimes but she is a good nurse, regardless of her personal life."

"Tell me about it!" Alice said a little too loud.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Mmm… I… Bella?"

"It's not really of our business but Rosalie told us what happen last time we were here. I just think it was a little unprofessional from both of you to do … IT… in an exam room. But as I said it is not of my business."

"I see, well let me tell you girls a little secret. What your friend though it was happening, wasn't really happening. I was just doing a vaginal exam because she was afraid to go to the gynecologist. This hospital is like a soap opera, you see, Amanda was dating Dr. Cullen's son Edward, who also happens to be a Dr. but he works at Cedars Sinai. He and Amanda had been dating for almost three years; she was always pressuring him about getting married. She gave him an ultimatum a few months ago, so he proposed even though his parents didn't agree. She got a job here because of Edward, and he was looking at properties so they could move in after the wedding. He wanted a small house, somewhere in The Valley or Los Feliz, somewhere quite where they could raise kids, but she said she wanted a house in Beverly Hills, so he bought a home there. Since she got here I really didn't like her very much because she was a flirt, so I tried to avoid working with her. That day before you got here she asked me if I could do her a favor, a medical one, and of course I said I could. She said that she got an infection in one of the bathrooms and if I could give her penicillin or something. I told her she had to go to the gynecologist, but she begged me saying she was embarrassed to have Dr. Lawrence look at her down there and because I barely work with her, if I just took a look myself. So once you ladies left I told her to hopped on top of the table and she bend her legs so I could began the exam. I knew she was lying as soon as I saw it, but your friend walked in, and she thought… well you know. It was fun to mess with her so I just let her think whatever she wanted. I finished the exam and told Amanda that it was not an infection, but gonorrhea and that she needed to tell her boyfriend. She said I was mistaken and left without the prescription. Lucky for Edward, I intern with Dr. Lawrence for almost two years before deciding for ortho, so I took a sample and send it to the lab. I was not going to wait for Amanda to infect Edward so I told Esme and she told Edward once the labs came back positive. He took the test but he always used a condom so he was clean. He called off the engagement immediately and she told him that he was a looser and the only reason she was marrying him was his money. Like I said. This hospital is like a soap opera." I could not believe what I was hearing. I was glad to know that Emmett was actually a professional, but I felt sad for that poor guy who gave her hearth to this horrible woman.

"I keep telling Uncle Carlisle that he should fire her, but he always says he can't unless she does something wrong medically speaking. I never like her, I always told everyone she was a gold digger." Alison said as she put her long wavy blond hair behind her shoulder.

"Is that my favorite niece I heard in there" a soft voice came from outside the room.

"Aunt Esme!" Alison yelled excitedly as she greeted her aunt. The lovely mid age woman who walked into the exam room looked awfully familiar, but I couldn't remember where I had seen her before. She and Alison were talking animatedly about some TV show when aunt Esme noticed us. "Alison, who might this lovely ladies be?"

"Aunt Esme let me introduce you to my history teacher Miss Swan, and her friend Alice. Miss Swan gave a ride here because Noel and I broke up and I couldn't get a ride home. She had to bring her friend here so she just brought me too."

The lovely doctor stared at me for a few seconds before she extended her hand for me to shake "Esme Cullen, it is a pleasure to meet you two." She looked at me again as if she was examining me, "I'm sorry Miss Swan, but do we know each other for somewhere? I´m almost positive I've seen you before." She said intrigued. Just then some else came into the room and I felt all the air leaving my lungs as I saw him again. IT WAS HIM! The guy from Whole Foods.

"I heard the most beautiful girl on California was visiting. Ali!" he said as he approached his cousin to hug her.

"EDWARD!" Alison reply happily as she jumped into his open arms. I could barely listen to them talk about hoe she got to the hospital "My teacher drove me with… friend… Noel and I… Miss Swan?" everything was spinning now and I could feel the darkness coming, "Miss Swan?"

As he turned to look at me I felt myself falling into the abysm. The last thing I heard before falling completely into darkness was someone calling my name.

* * *

Alice POV

"BELLA!" I screamed as I saw my best friend lying in the ground. "Someone please help her!" I couldn't believe I was in a room with three doctors and none of them was doing something to help her.

Emmett was the first to kneel next to Bella and check her pulse and hearth beat. "I think she fainted. Was she feeling ill before?"

"I don't think so, she looked okay in the drive here and until a minute ago."

"She was fine in school too. Maybe a little distracted but okay nevertheless" Alison assured us. I got out of the gurney and move to the side as Emmett laid Bella in it. I moved to the chair in the corner and waited for him to finish examine her.

"I think she will be fine, but maybe we should admit her and run some tests to be sure. Has she been under a lot of pressure lately?" the other doctor, Edward I think, asked me.

"I guess, we just move to a new place, and she was a little worried about starting teaching again. She hasn't been sleeping well lately but I thought it was because of the ghost stories, it never occurred to me that she might be under a lot of stress." I felt like and awful friend. Bella was always taking care of Rose and me and we never did much for her. She was like the parent and us the children. I quickly called Rose and told her what happen and that they were admitting Bella in for the night. She said she would be here as soon as possible.

While Emmett and Edwin worked on Bella to get her admitted, Esme kept staring at Bella, like she was trying to determine something.

Emmett took Bella upstairs for a MR and some other tests while I waited in the waiting room with Amanda and her aunt. The other guy, Edwin? Edward? was bringing some paper to me. "Excuse me miss…? " "Alice" I said.

"Miss Alice, I'm Edward, I'm Alison's cousin. Do you think you can feel this forms for me? Its protocol so we know what she is allergic to and to help us get her chart from other hospital if required. Do you know this information?"

I looked quickly at the form and notice and I knew most of this information. Whatever I didn't I could ask Rose, she was good with this entire paperwork thing. "I know most of this information, whatever I don't my other roommate probably does. I'll start filling this now. If it helps for something, her dad is in the military, a high rank lieutenant I think." He just nodded as he walked back to the nurse station to share the information I gave him as I started filling the documents.

"Sorry to disturbed you dear, but I was wondering if your friend shops at the Whole Foods in Brentwood?" she asked me.

"I guess she could, the school she works at is close by I think. Why do you asked?"

"I think I remembered from where I knew your friend, and so did she and that might be the reason she fainted."

I was a little confused by her statement. Why will knowing her will have made Bella fainted. "Did she ever tell you about an incident with a crazy guy and his mom a few weeks ago?" Just then I remember Bella's story about some douchebag who yelled at her while she was picking some fruit.

"Wait! Are you the lady from Whole Foods with the douchebag son?"

"Guilty" she said looking a little embarrassed. "But in his defense he is not really a douchebag, he was just having an awful week."

"Aunt Esme what are you talking about?" Alison asked curious about our conversation.

"It seems your cousin Edward and Bella had a little bit of a catfight a few weeks ago. It was more likely your cousin Edward yelling at her form what I heard." I told her just as Edward return to sit next to her mother.

"Okay everything is set. If you are done mother we should probably leave before we run into you know who" he said looking at his mother waiting for an answer.

"I want to wait until I know Miss Swan is okay. Besides I can't believe you were that mean with Miss Swan Eddie! She is really nice and didn't deserve it. You should save that for you clingy ex." Cousin Edward looked more confused than me after a Game of Thrones episode.

"Ali, what are you talking about? Before today I have never seen your teacher before."

"Yes you have Edward, remember Whole Foods the weekend before 4th of July, the young lady picking apples?" his mother reminded him. So he has the nerve to yelled at my best friend and pretended it never happened.

"OH!" was everything he said. He did look a little ashamed once he realized Bella was the girl from the store. "Excuse me Miss Alice? Do you mind if we wait with you until your friend wakes up? I will like apologize personally for my behavior that day."

He did seem sorry about the whole thing, and didn't Emmett say he was cheated on by his fiancé. Besides he was kind of hot and single, maybe I could play a little bit of matchmaker. "Well as long as you don't yelled at her while apologizing I guess it will be okay." I said smiling sweetly.

"Alice! I´ve been looking for you everywhere! How´s Bella? What happen?" Rose asked concerned as she approached me. She turned and looked at the small crowd gathered waiting to hear news about Bella. I gave her a hug as she sat next to me and lean close to whisper in my ear, "Ali? Who are these people? Do you know them?"

I just nodded with my head and answer her previous questions, "Bella is fine, or she will be. Dr. McCarty took her to run some test just to be sure. He suggested Bella should spend the night as a precaution. As to what happen, doctor thinks is stressed." I explain to my blonde friend. I couldn´t help to notice the annoyed expression that crossed her face as soon as I mention Dr. McCarty´s name.

"Is that Dr. McCarty the only doctor in this hospital? I would rather my best friend to be attended by a professional, not a clown." Rose said.

"I´m sorry Miss, I´m Dr. Cullen and I don´t know what makes you think that Dr. McCarty is not a professional but I can assure he is one of our top residents. I´ve worked with him in a few cases and his performance with patients as well as relatives is always appropriate and professional. Eventhough he is inclined towards orthopedics, he is good in the ER." Alison´s aunt told Rose.

"I don´t want to be rude Dr. Cullen but I have my reasons to think so." I completely forgot about the whole "exam room fiasco". Rose didn´t really know what happen. I tried to interrupt her so she won´t make a fool of herself but she wouldn´t listen. "He may be a professional with his patients but his morals are all wrong. Someone who does what he did, specially in his working place, shows no respect for his profession or others…"

"ROSE! Please apologize my friend she has had a long day and she is confused. She is talking about a different doctor that looks like Dr. McCarty that´s why she thinks he is the same person. Right, Rose?" I gave her a look that indicated she should shut up and agree with me.

She looked at me for a moment before nodding "Yeah, I guess you could be right."

We stayed quiet for a while before Alison introduce herself to Rose and explained to her why she was with us when Bella fainted. I started thinking about what had happen the past two weeks. I haven´t tell the girls but I´ve notice some weird things happening around. Things moving by themselves, things turning on and off, like lights, my hair iron. During the night I swear I could hear someone whispering my name and some voices arguing. At the beginning I thought it was one of the girls with a boy they brought home, but they will never do that without asking. Also, Rose kept bothering me at night, touching my face or pulling my feet and she had the nerve to denied it and on top of that accuse me of being me the one who moves her things. May be I was imagining everything or the painkillers were making me a bit crazy, but I think it will be a good idea to talk to Bella and Rose about it.

An hour later Emmett came to the waiting room to let us know all the tests were right and Bella was awake now and asking to see her friends. He walked us to Bella´s room and Rose got in first followed by Alison and her aunt. I stayed out with Edward for a minute to warn him again about being rude to B.

"I know, not worry. I have no intentions to being rude with your friend. All I want is to say I´m sorry. I´ll just wait out here so you can prepare her if you´ll like."

That was actually a good idea. I smiled at him and told him to wait for a minute till I could clear the room. I turned and walked into the room to find my two friends laughing about something Alison said.

* * *

BPOV

"Help me! Please, help me!" the little boy told me. He was standing next to the same tree in the backyard. I was approaching him but suddenly a dark fog surrounded him. And just like he appear he suddenly was gone.

I opened my eyes and start looking around. I was a little startled about my dream and I couldn´t recognize my surroundings.

"I see you are awake now. How do you feel?" Dr. McCarty asked me looking up from a chart he had in his hands. "Do you mind? I have to check your vitals." He said pointing at me. I just nodded my head in approval.

"What happen to me?" I asked him while he was checking my pupils.

"You don´t remember? Well, I was removing your friend´s cast when suddenly you fainted. We run a few tests and everything seems fine but I´ll like to keep you overnight just to be sure. Open up. Tongue out, please. Your friend and Dr. Cullen´s niece are outside by the way. They were really worried about you." He then checked my pulse, heart beat and lungs. "Okay everything seems to be fine. I just need to ask you a few questions. Have you been having trouble sleeping?"

"A bit I guess, I´ve been having weird dreams lately."

"Have you been under any kind of stress lately?"

"Mmm… I don´t think so, I mean I just started a new job but I like teaching. It could be the move but that was almost a month ago."

"May be you are overthinking something or you are worried about something and you don´t even notice it. Do you want me to go get you friends?"

"Yes please, if you don´t mind" I said smiling.

"I´ll be right back."

Everything was kind of blurred. All I could remember was picking up Alice and driving Alison to the hospital with us. I could swear I dreamt about the mysterious little boy but I don´t know what the dream was about, only that he was in it. May be it was time to tell the girls about the boy, I haven´t told them yet because they will think I´m crazy but considering the things they have been saying this past days maybe I should. I was also thinking about doing a little research about the house and the people who lived there before us.

"Hey stranger!" Rose said walking into the room followed closely by Alison and some . "How do you feel?"

"I´m little confused about what happen and have a small headache but I´m okay. I just don´t like the idea of staying here for an entire night."

"It´s for your own good B and you know it." Just when I was about to asked her about Alice she walked into the room smiling mischievously.

"Hey sleeping beauty how was the nap?" she said making everyone in the room laugh.

"We are glad you are feeling better Miss Swan. Let me introduce myself, I´m Dr. Cullen, Alison´s aunt. Thank you so much for bringing my niece with you, this is such a big city that I´m always concerned when she rides the bus or takes a taxi."

"It´s a pleasure to meet you Dr. Cullen and you have nothing to thank. Even if we weren´t coming to the same place I would have driven her anyway." I said smiling. I remember seeing this lady before but I couldn´t figure out where. Maybe at school.

"Well Aly, now that we know Miss Swan is going to be okay I think we better get back to the house. You must be very tired and I was done with my rounds anyway. It was a pleasure meeting you all. Say your goodbyes I´ll meet you outside." Alison just nodded and turned to address me.

"I´m glad you are going to be okay Miss Swan. Class will have been boring without you. I´ll see you on class next week. Have a great weekend! Bye Alice it was nice meeting you, you too Miss Rosalie" she wave good bye as she left the room with her aunt.

"Hey B, do you mind if we left you alone for a minute?" Alice asked me a little nervous, "I need to file some paper work in admissions and I need Rose´s help because you know how clueless I am with those things."

"That´s okay, I wouldn´t mind a few minutes for myself" I said smiling

"Okay we will be back in a few minutes. Would you like something from the cafeteria?"

"Mmm… may be a blueberry muffin?" I asked hopefully.

"Okay we will be right back, hey I just remember something. What´s the deal with that Dr. McCarty? Why did you make me shut up when I was telling that lady about him?" Rose asked Alice.

"I´ll tell you on our way to the cafeteria. Come on Rose let´s go" I could hear Rose protesting as they left the room. Just as they left I heard a knock on my door. "Come in" I said thinking it was a nurse or Dr. McCarty but I was shocked when I saw the same guy from earlier.

"Good afternoon Miss Swan, I hope you are feeling better. Do you mind if I come in for a minute? I will like to check on you test results." He said shyly. That was weird, isn´t this the same guy who was yelling at me only a few weeks before.

"Yeah I guess that´s okay" I said. He walked towards me and grabbed my chart from my bed end. He looked at it for a moment, before taking his stethoscope from his neck and signaling at me. I just nodded letting him know he could go ahead.

As he exam me it occurred to me that may be didn´t remember me from that day. It was possible he was just exasperated by me taking so long. I mean he was being kind of nice right now. He finished the exam and wrote some things in my chart.

"Well everything seems to be okay, your blood work came back pretty normal, just a little high in your glucose which means you are under a bit of stress. You should probably try to relax a bit. I heard Dr. McCarty wants to keep you over night to keep an eye on you, I will suggest the same seeing as you need to relax. You can go back to your home tomorrow morning."

I sigh a little disappointed that I will have to spend the night here, eventhough things at home were kind of weird right now, and I still hated hospitals. "Yeah I guess that will be okay Dr … " I just realize I don´t even know his name.

"Cullen, I´m Dr. Edward Cullen" he said "I realize I haven´t formally introduce myself but before anything else I would like to apologize with you. I´m not sure if you remember but we run into each other at Whole Foods over the 4th of July weekend and I was really rude towards you. I realize it is not an excuse but I was having a horrible week and I guess I just took it all with you. I´m really sorry about my behavior and I hope you can forgive me."

I was speechless, that was probably the most honest apology I´ve ever heard. I have had fight and arguments with my friends before and we always forgive each other because of the amount of years we´ve known each other but this was the first time I receive an apology from a complete stranger. "Yes I do remember you and don´t worry about it, you were right at some point. I was taking way to much picking up apples, but in my defense my roommates tend to be picky when it comes to fruit, specially apples."

"You have nothing to apologize for, I was raise to be a gentleman and I could just waited for my turn or go pick some else. "

"Why don´t we just start again and forget that ever happen. I´m Isabella Swan, but my friends call me Bella and I teach high school history" I said while handing him my hand to shake.

"Edward Cullen, I´m a medical resident and it is pleasure to meet you Miss Swan" he said shaking my hand. I realize he was probably Alison cousin, the one Dr. McCarty was talking about. That meant he was also Nurse whats her name ex… wait a minute didn´t Emmett said he works at another hospital

"A medical resident here or at another hospital?" I asked eventhough I already knew the answer.

"Guilty as charge, I work at Cedars Sinai but to be fair I do have privileges in this hospital. Perks of being the chief´s son I guess" he said smiling.

We stay quiet for a minute before Emmett and the girls walk back into the room. Rose seemed a little bit friendlier towards Emmett than the other day so I guess probably Alice told her about that nurse.

"Edward, what a surprise?! What are you doing here?" Emmett asked him

"What are you talking about? Did you hit your head or something? You know my parents work here and I stop by earlier this morning." Edward said confused.

"Yeah you are right; I guess I am a bit distracted lately. So how does our VIP patient feeling? Any headaches or pain?"

"Actually I feel a lot better right now, I think I´m just tired because I haven´t been sleeping well lately."

"We´ll see how you feel in the morning; if you still feel like you are unable to sleep through the night we´ll give you something. I´m afraid you friends won´t be able to spend the night because they are not immediate family, but they can stay pass visiting hours and be back tomorrow morning. Let´s just keep it a secret okay?" he said smiling.

I nodded my head and thank Emmett for his help.

"That is why we are here for. I have to leave you ladies; I need to go check on my other patients but I´ll be back later because I´m on call tonight."

"I should leave too; I promise my mother I was taking Alison to the mall and dinner. I hope you feel better Miss Swan"

"Bella, please. I mean just Bella is fine. No need for the Miss. And thank you Dr. Cullen for everything." I hope he understood I was referring to the apology he gave me before.

"It was my pleasure Bella and please call me Edward."

They both left the room and Alice started with her Spanish Inquisition. Rose just looked confused standing next to her.

"Okay so you remember the story I just told you about Emmett… I mean Dr. McCarty?" Rose just nodded, "Edward is that annoying nurse´s ex-boyfriend and also the same guy that yelled at Bella at Whole Foods. While she was out he told me that he was having an awful week and he just took it out on her, but he didn´t know I already knew what happen to him. Now B tell us what did he said?"

"Nothing, he just apologized for his behavior and that was it. No big chick flick declaration or anything. "

"Wait he didn´t ask you out or anything?

"Alice, how many times we have to tell you this. Life is not a lifetime movie, so get over it. Any way I´m starving, do you want anything in particular Bel? I can run anywhere, even In n Out and get you something?" just hearing her talk about burgers was watering my mouth.

"I don´t think I´m supposed to eat burgers but I wouldn´t say no to a chocolate sundae."

"Okay I´ll be right back, are you coming Alice or not?"

Alice turned to look at me so I nodded in approval. They both left talking something about Emmett.

I took advantage of my time alone to think about my dream earlier. I was 100% sure that the little kid I keep seeing at home was in it but I couldn´t remember what I was about. I was determined know, more than ever, to find out what was going on our home.

I woke up the next feeling well rested. Dr. McCarty came before leaving to check on me and sign my discharge papers.

"So how do you feel this morning?"

"A lot better actually. You were right I needed a good night´s sleep. Whatever the night nurses gave me was super helpful. I don´t even remember what I dreamt about."

"I think I´m going to prescribe you something that will help you sleep at night. Take half a tablet every night with you meal, for two weeks. Remember this peel will make you sleepy so if you need to do something I will advise you to take it at least half an hour before going to bed. If you have any question, I am also going to give you my card so you can call me any time." He said while writing something down on a piece of paper. "Your friends should be here soon; do you want some company till they arrive?"

"No don´t worry. I don´t mind staying by myself for a couple minutes. Besides you look really tired, long night?"

"Night shifts are really tiring sometimes. Well Bella I certainly hope to see you again but under better circumstances. It was a pleasure meeting you" he said shaking my hand. "Oh before I forgot, could you please remind Alice about her physical therapy and she probably shouldn´t wear heels until her ankle is 100% okay. Just have her call and make an appointment."

"I´ll do that doc and thank you again for all the trouble. I know this is not exactly your area of expertise and I appreciate all the trouble you went on" I said smiling at him. I really like Emmett a lot. He was nice guy and a good doctor, very caring with his patients. He almost made me forget the aberration I felt towards hospitals.

Once he left my room I lay in bed for a few minutes thinking about how to start my research in the house. I should probably start looking at old newspapers and see if they mention something weird.

A couple minutes after 8 am Rose and Ali walk in with a small bag with my toiletries and a change of clothes. I thank them and walk into the bathroom as they went to sign a few papers for my discharge. As I got dress I thought about telling them what I was going to do, but I decided that maybe I should wait until I know for sure something is wrong.

"Hey B are you done. Everything is ready we just need to stop by the pharmacy for your medicine and then we can go home." Rose said from behind the door.

"I´m almost done, I´ll be out in a sec" I said

As I was finishing brushing my teeth I could hear them arguing about a shoe Alice left on the top of the stairs almost causing Rosalie to fall down "All I´m saying Al is that you should be more careful were you take out your shoes. I know you were exited and everything but I almost fell."

"Rose I already told I haven´t wear high heels in almost a month! I do not remember grabbing them yesterday, maybe I did and they just fell from my bag." I heard Alice said as I walk out of the bathroom. "Ready to go home B?"

"Yes, eventhough I actually slept amazing last night. I guess I did need the rest. Oh before I forget Alice, she still need to do physical therapy before you can wear high heels or you could get injured again."

"But… but…"

"Oh come on Alice, is not the end of the world. Just give them a call, go to the therapy and see what they say, may be you can wear some shoes that are not that high.

I grabbed my small bag and purse and walked towards the exit as I heard my two best friends talk about shoes. I was happy that they were finally having a conversation without blaming each other for stuff. I just hope this keeps going on for a long while.

* * *

AN:

Sorry for the delay but I was on vacations and I couldn´t take my laptop with me and then I had some health issues but I´m better know.

Again I´m sorry about the grammar/spelling but i haven´t been able to get a beta yet.

In the next chapter will see Bella´s research and someone who will help her with it. Every character I introduce is very important to the story eventhough they seem like supporting characters at the moment, they will have big parts in later chapters.


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